Smouldering Ceaselessly
by Captain Buggles
Summary: Ash has a secret. A secret that's delayed his journey, and caused him to hang back as Professor Oak's assistant. But now, with a chance to start fresh in Kalos, Ash is taking the risk. Amourshipping, Palletshipping, among others. Nonstandard starter, queer romance, Smarter Ash, Special Ash. Cover image was done by my friend, Leutheria.
1. Chapter 1

**Smouldering Ceaselessly**

**So yeah, I've made a journey fic about Ash before, but I deleted the last one pretty early on. How I wanted it to be at first turned out different from how I wanted to be later on, making for a rather awkward read that I quickly came to regret. But this story was made more because of an idea I had rolling around in my head that I thought would be fun to write about. It is not an exact attempt to rewrite something, it is a distinct idea and concept in many regards.**

**Pokémon Journies start when you're 13 in this story, which I still think is kinda young tbh but it's at least more reasonable than 10.**

**SEXUALITY(and later, gender as well) IS DIVERSE IN THIS STORY. There WILL be shipping besides boy x girl. If you're expecting loads of dramatic angst about sexuality and gender, you're also sadly mistaken.**

**Clemont's role is purely as a Gym Leader. I think it's kind of stupid that Gym Leaders can just up and leave so freely for extended periods of time, even if they have a way to keep the Gym going in their absence. (On that same note, Kalos only has 8 gyms in this fic, and they're well known, a very big deal, and their leaders are common knowledge. Like seriously, the way the anime vaguely explores the concept of there being more than eight just bugs me.)**

**If there even is Team Rocket, they're gonna be cameos or only appear occasionally. Despite their good points, I'm tired of them hogging time and being too formulaic, to be honest.**

**Also, if you want, check out my other story, A Lionhearted Mouse. It's set in Kanto, and basically about Pikachu running off almost immediately after Ash comes into Oak's lab to become a "Trainer" himself. This way, he can make humans see that Pokemon's desires should be respected above all else. Pretty much, a parody/major tweak to this whole idea.**

* * *

"Oh, Ash, you're awake on time! So you really are finally ready…I'm so happy for you, dear, honestly… Every child should have their chance, if they truly want it… And you're no exception." a youthful looking woman with mahogany haired tied into a mid-length ponytail said reassuringly to her raven-haired son, giving him her same gentle smile as always. Ash had just left his room in their simple, single-floor, ranch-style Kalos home, clad in only green plaid pajamas.

"Thanks, mom…" the boy said, yawning sleepily. Better late than never, he supposed. Although he supposed he didn't really have to rush…

"Oh, and honey, I bought you some new clothes! I know you don't particularly need them, but this is a big step in your life, and that should be marked by a nice new wardrobe." she said, handing him a stack of neatly folded clothing, his Kalos outfit, from off of the living room table.

"Thanks, mom." Ash said, with just a bit more gratitude and awareness as he completed his groggy, zombie-like march to the bathroom to get ready for his big day.

"Don't get too excited there, hon!" his mother lightheartedly teased. But surely, her son was just nervous. After all, he hadn't been able to go on his journey sooner, and various circumstances outside of both his and her control left him quite reluctant to go on a journey, if not outright afraid. Not that Ash would ever admit such a thing. Her son could be very headstrong and resilient, but even he had his limits.

Within a short time, Ash was done, and his mother was at the ready with a hot plate of eggs, bacon, and chocolate chip pancakes. She giggled as Ash set his eyes on the pancakes in particular, and cracked a wide smile. "I knew you'd like that." she said with a giggle, as Ash briefly gave his thanks and sat down to quickly devour his meal in the most civil way possible.

Knowing it was rather pointless to interrupt her child during one of his favorite meals, Delia just waited patiently for Ash to finish. "The preparations are all set, Ash. By time you make your way to Aquacorde, Professor Sycamore's assistants will have your Pokémon ready!"

"I just hope we can be friends." Ash said sheepishly.

"Oh, shush, hon. You may not be a Trainer just yet but you're great with Pokémon! Now come on, give your mom a big hug before you go!" she said, holding her arms out wide. Ash jokingly pouted a bit before reciprocating with all of his might. "Oh my, Ash, don't go doing that to your mother! You know you're stronger than you look!" she lightheartedly scolded.

"Sorry Mom! Well, here I go! We'll keep in touch! Thanks for everything! Bye!" Ash said, quickly grabbing the pre-packed backpack that sat beside the door and heading out into the world, Vaniville Town to be specific. Ash couldn't say he hated it. It was small, pleasant, and virtually crime free, just like Pallet. His mother had initially suggested the bustling Lumiose, so they'd be able to blend in well and essentially become hidden in the crowd. But ultimately, the quaint town of Vaniville, honestly more like a village than a town, won them over. Even so, Ash regretted having to leave Pallet. He really did miss Professor Oak, he was almost like a father to him. Since Ash couldn't go on a journey when he turned 13, he still needed an outlet for his love of Pokémon. Professor Oak and his lab served that purpose brilliantly, and Ash became a seasoned, well-trusted, and favored assistant, learning all sorts of things without even setting a foot outside of Pallet.

* * *

Ash chuckled warmly as he thought back to Gary. Their history was...complicated and bittersweet, to say the least. Ash still remembered it like it was yesterday, the fights and arguments they would get into as kids, how much they would infuriate Professor Oak, how everything was like a competition… And it wasn't until the day just before Gary was supposed to leave again and go to Johto that Ash realized that even Professor Oak's affection was some sort of unspoken competition.

By then, Ash had settled well into his role as Professor Oak's assistant, and after a shaky start due to Ash's inexperience and headstrong ways, the Professor's trust in him and opinion of him had warmed considerably. Gary immediately noticed, although Ash initially failed to notice he had noticed. For the three weeks he stayed in Pallet, Ash noticed Gary growing increasingly more hostile towards him, especially after any sort of positive exchange Ash had with Oak, or any time Oak complimented Ash. Ash being only 14 and much more naïve at the time, he never really did figure out why until Gary made it plainly obvious.

By waiting until they were both alone outside, and then shoving him hard, and crying "What's so great about you, huh?! Hanging off of Gramps like some kinda leech or something! It's disgusting! ...It's...it's-" Ash still distinctly remembered the drop in Gary's unsteady voice, the hurt that colored his tone so richly back then. "It's like _you're _the grandson now…". But of course, that younger Ash Ketchum didn't take the news so maturely, having already been fed up and upset with Gary's rude behavior over those three weeks, and for a long time before Gary had left for his journey through Kanto.

"Yeah, so? What's wrong, Gary? Mad 'cause I'm your Grandpa's faaavorite~?" he said in a sing-song voice. That made Gary angrier than Ash had seen since Gary was still very young and tantrum-prone. On top of that, Gary was older and stronger than before from his year or so traversing the region. Ash's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, but it was too late. Gary punched him in the face with all his might, so hard that there was a palpable crack. Ash staggered backwards and simply stared at Gary for a moment, dumb with shock. Until that short moment was over, Ash didn't feel much of anything. But when it was over, Ash immediately stifled a shout of pain and clapped his hands over his now bleeding nose.

"O-oh...I..I'm sorry, Ash, honest, I didn't think that...I didn't mean to...oh no...fuck…" Gary said, as he grabbed Ash's wrists, trying to see his nose, only for Ash to wrestle himself away, swearing as he did so. "Calm down, I just want to see it!" Gary cried worriedly.

"Get the hell away from me!" Ash shouted. "I insult you because you've spent three weeks being a dick, and you decide to piledrive my damn face?!" Ash cried, his voice literally cracking and shaking a bit as the distinctive, helpless feeling of it tightened his throat. "And to think I was excited you were coming back…" Ash grumbled.

"...You were?" Gary said in a small, confused voice, his guilt levels climbing to an all time high. "Me? But why?"

"Whatever, Gary, like I'm gonna tell you now." Ash growled.

"Can you at least let me see your nose? Please?" Gary said, trying to make his voice as gentle as possible. Ash glared at him before steadily removing his hands, and Gary gave a gasp of regret, disgust, and sympathetic pain. "...Ooohhh….yeah...yeah, that's...that's pretty bad dude...I'm REALLY sorry…" Gary said, as he inspected the bloody, clearly crooked wreck of a nose.

"It'll be fine." Ash said, while quickly turning and walking away.

"But-" Gary started.

"It'll be fine!" Ash forcefully repeated, but Gary wasn't having it. Although he couldn't exactly be proud he was going to put his hands on Ash yet again, he felt it was important in the heat of the moment. Gary firmly grasped Ash by the shoulders and turned him around, only for his eyes to widen in surprise yet again. Ash's nose was moving, ever so slightly, all on its own, to properly realign with his face.

"Dude!" Gary cried out in disbelief and astonishment.

"I..I told you...It'll be fine...But I guess I never told you just how _soon_ it'll be fine…" Ash said with a nervous chuckle, as he wiped away the majority of the blood on his left arm, glad he was wearing a short sleeved shirt. To Gary's amazement, there was already no further bleeding.

"W-what the hell, Ash?! What the hell?!" Gary cried.

"See, Gary, this is the whole reason I didn't go on a journey with you, no matter how much you taunted me, how much you called me a coward… Sooner or later, everyone would know…"

"Then just be careful!" Gary cried.

"It's not that simple. My body is...sorta stuck, I guess you could say. Everything heals, disappears. It'll just be gone. I've never even had a scar before. I didn't get taller the year before you left, I didn't get taller the year you were gone, either. My mom says it's getting to the point where… whatever it is… is gonna completely stick me in place." Ash calmly explained.

"I...I can't fucking believe this! Does Gramps know?!" Gary shouted.

"Of course." Ash said.

"But why?! This is unheard of! People don't just...don't just stop aging and become like some kinda flatworm or Staryu or something! What, if I cut you in half there'll be two of you?!"

"I dunno, and I really don't wanna find out." Ash said, cracking a wry smile and chuckling a little. He might as well smile while he had the chance, since Gary was probably going to hate his guts more than ever now…

"...I see you're still you though." Gary said, smiling as well.

"Huh?" Ash asked. That definitely didn't sound like the voice of someone who's disgusted with you.

"You've always got some kinda comeback, no matter what I say. Even if it's fucking stupid, it's always something with you." Gary said, chuckling. "So it's fine if you're some kinda mutant flatworm or whatever. You're still Ash." Gary finished.

"...But you're hardly Gary! What the hell, man?! I thought you were gonna hate me or something! Not be the nicest you've been in years and be all 'Oh Ash you poor thing I don't care about you being a freak, you're still you!' like some kind of bad chick flick!" Ash immediately shot back, so stunned he wasn't even capable of gratitude yet.

"Dude, look. I've been a real jerk. I know. I just broke your fucking nose. You've still got blood on you to prove it. But I just...I guess I was jealous, you know? ...Plus you can be kind of a dick sometimes anyway, but I digress..."

"Gee, thanks…" Ash muttered sarcastically. "But really, you were jealous?" Ash asked incredulously.

"Even though I always talked a big game, it was because I was scared of how good of a rival you were. I didn't want you to pass me up. I didn't want you to get better than me at everything. You're basically the only kid like me around here. Both of us only have one adult left to rely on, both of us love Pokémon, we can both be jerks sometimes… Me, maybe just a tiny bit more often… But yeah! You get the picture. I started off so glad you weren't gonna go on a journey with me, but then it just wasn't really the same. If you weren't there, what was I really proving? And then I saw how you were doing with Gramps over the video calls, and it just sort of ate at me the whole time. I even wanted to go home sometimes, but I felt like if I really went all the way and stuck through it that it'd fuck with your head more than anything. But it didn't. You just sorta laughed and teased it off, and went back to being all chummy with Gramps."

"So what are you really even saying here?! You're a big jealous douche, but you don't hate me?" Ash asked, so confused it was turning into more anger.

"I'm saying we should start over, Ash. Be more honest about stuff, forgive each other for stuff, move on, actually get along like how we were when we were kids." Gary said.

Ash looked at him long and hard, painfully aware of the slowly drying blood on his face and arm, but eventually he relented. "Deal. I would, like, shake your hand or something but since you got my hands covered in my own blood…"

"Jeez, sorry! I really am, god!"

"No problem, it's obviously fine now… Still, you should teach me how the hell you learned to punch like that, if we're gonna get along now." Ash said, managing to make the best of the situation as always.

"Oh, man, it was so cool, it was this fighting arena in Saffron City! Sabrina beat my ass... mind you, the only time a Gym Leader ever did…" Gary added, as he saw Ash crack a smile. "So I decided to go in there and see if they could help me. I honestly expected Pokémon training, but they started spouting all this stuff about training yourself too, so I had to work as hard as my Pokémon were. All that sweating and getting yelled at and shit was awful at first, but since I ended up winning after that, I decided it'd be smart to keep at it. Check it out!" Gary said with a smug grin, as he flexed one of his arms, which was indeed more toned than Ash remembered.

"Damn." Ash said with equal parts admiration and jealousy. "But while you're over here showing off, I'm here covered in blood that YOU caused…" Ash reminded him.

"Oh, damn, you're right!" Gary said, as he led Ash away to get cleaned up.

"I can keep up by myself, you know…" Ash mumbled, staring down at Gary's hand grabbing his wrist, the one that didn't really have much blood on it.

"Jeez, then why not just leave while I was talking? It's not like it'd be anything new."

"We're trying to be friends now!"

"God, you're a fickle one." Gary said, although he was rather gentle and joking about it.

The next day, Gary announced he'd stay home rather than move on to Johto, and do research alongside Professor Oak as well. Only days later did he admit that part of the reason was that he felt Ash must've been lonely, being a kid who wasn't on a journey. Only two weeks later did he admit that the rest of the reason was that he felt lonely without Ash. From then on, things were different. Gary became calmer, kinder, more considerate, more defensive of Ash, and more defensive about Ash. They quickly grew closer and closer, since in such a small town, it was really hard not to. But as they grew closer, Ash's mother would giggle sometimes, and Ash wouldn't understand what for. And he still didn't understand what for until it had gone on like that for almost a year. Then suddenly, somehow, he found he was dating Gary Oak. There was no formal beginning. One night, during a sleepover, they were just suddenly kissing. The next day was rather awkward, but when Ash asked for the sake of clarity the day after that, Gary said "..Well, I want to. Do you?"

Despite the severely lacking eloquence, Ash found he couldn't resist. Delia and the Professor both easily approved, and the relationship was surprisingly strong, lasting three and a half years. But that was when Ash grew uneasy. Gary was still growing and maturing. Ash finally grew, for his last time, less than an inch taller in the first six months. He was briefly happy about it, but he ended up an entire head shorter than Gary by the time two years passed, which Gary enjoyed greatly.

Gary did indeed teach Ash how to punch, and Ash found that exercise in general both impressed Gary and kept his mind off of his 'problem', so Ash also managed to get toned and somewhat more muscular in the first year and a half, although it became increasingly difficult. Meanwhile, changes in Gary's body and facial structure allowed him to become practically a model in Ash's eyes, which filled him with some infuriating combination of admiration, envy, and possessive glee. It didn't help that Gary never entirely stopped being a showoff. But after that year and a half, Ash was unable to progress any further. By the time two years passed, not even his hair could remain cut, growing back out to its usual length within an hour, even if entirely cut off. (He and Gary did indeed test that for themselves, and Ash had to admit it was pretty amusing.)

Even so, Gary believed it was best to not make too big of a deal about Ash's condition. "Staryu", the Pokémon he had compared him to when he first discovered Ash's condition, ended up sticking. Sometimes, it was modified to become "my star", but it took both of them a long time to get used to such a sappy nickname. It was a term of lighthearted endearment now, a symbol of loving acceptance, and Ash didn't particularly mind Gary's gentle teasing and joking about the subject of his apparent immortality when they were alone. It kept it "real" but not "too real", in a way that mostly only made sense to Ash. Perhaps the best part was that Ash had never once been sick in his life, and he was able to fearlessly tend to Gary when he came down with the flu one winter.

But still, Ash grew doubtful. What if Gary realized how hopeless it was one day, and ran off to be with someone else? What would people think of them? It was fine then, but what about when Ash started to look too much like his younger sibling, or even his son? Ash grew paranoid of the talk around the small town. "Oh, Delia, is your boy eating enough?" "Is he healthy? Why, he should be, I've never once seen the boy get ill." "Doesn't he want to go on a journey anytime soon? Seems awful happy with Oak's Pokemon…" "My, Delia, you sure do have a late bloomer on your hands…"

Gary always reassured him, angered more by the thought he would cheat on Ash than anything. He had put Ash through enough already, he didn't want to harm him anymore. But still, Ash feared their future so much that one day it was too much for him. He tearfully broke up with Gary with little warning, leaving both of them confused and regretful. But for the sake of Gary's future happiness, Ash convinced himself it'd be best if he didn't look back. Only a couple of short months later, Ash and his mother moved away to Kalos, fearing that the people of Kanto would eventually be unable to overlook his appearance.

At this time, Ash finally decided that he would allow himself to go on a journey. It'd get his mind off of Gary, and no one in Kalos knew him anyway. Besides, he wasn't the kind of person that was going to live his whole life in fear... Or at least, he was going to put a great deal of effort in trying not to be.

* * *

And that's how Ash Ketchum ended up walking down a dirt road to Aquacorde Town, as a 19 year old who most would say was 14. He looked around with excitement at the Pokémon in the area, being especially excited when he spotted a group of Fletchling. It wasn't often he got to see any Kalos Pokémon in Oak's lab, since Kalos was so distant. It wasn't even a very long path at all, but with the way Ash zig-zagged and got distracted, he ended up taking quite a long time. By time he was finally in Aquacorde, a boy with blond hair and a girl with deep purple hair and light brown skin, both dressed in white clothes, were standing around impatiently, and the boy looked down at a picture in his hands repeatedly. Finally, when he saw Ash, he immediately ran over, looking absolutely overjoyed.

"Finally, you're here!" the blond cheered. "Welcome to Kalos, Mr. Ketchum! Yes, Professor Oak has already been in contact with Professor Sycamore, and you seem like an excellent new Trainer!"

"That's right! So, to commemorate you coming here, we have a special Pokémon just for you!" the purple haired girl said.

"...You mean I can choose from Fennekin, Froakie, or Chespin?" Ash asked uncertainly, although he was sure he only heard 'a special Pokemon'

"H-huh? Oh, no, well, uh, the funny thing is…"

"We're fresh out." the blonde said plainly.

"Dexio!" the girl whined, obviously not wanting to look bad.

"Might as well be honest with him, Sina." Dexio said with a sigh. "But what we do have is a fun, energetic, cute, powerful Pokemon, suitable for all ages!" Dexio said, as he produced a shrunken Poké Ball from his pocket, and expanded it to full size. "Ready, Sina?!" he asked, as he took a dynamic pose as if he were in the middle of throwing the Poké Ball.

"Oh, uh, ready!" Sina answered, mirroring his pose with an imaginary Poké Ball.

"We present to you…" the duo started in perfect unison, clapping their free hands together. "Your friend for life, smiles or strife…" They each twirled around gracefully a few times, and Dexio simply allowed the Poké Ball to roll dramatically off of his fingers instead of throwing it. The ball landed perfectly between them and opened itself on the hard stone ground in a brilliant burst of light. "Espurr!" they cried excitedly, even blowing party horns as the tiny cat Pokemon materialized, immediately taking a "draw me like one of your french girls" pose.

Not knowing how else to react, Ash just clapped with an expression of uncertain bemusement.

"Yeah, you better like it, we practiced all the way until you got here." Dexio said with mild annoyance. "Which took like, /forever/…" he added in with a lower, quieter voice.

"We were pretty bored…" Sina said, with a sheepish smile.

"That's not too hard to see." Ash said, although he smiled as he did. "Sorry I was late… Hey, little fella…" He said, bending down to look more closely at the Espurr, which got up and just stared back. Literally, all it did was stare. Ash wasn't even completely sure it was breathing. Sure, it was cute overall, but the staring thing quickly got a little out of hand. Ash almost felt as if Espurr was staring at every cell of him individually, and staring past his skin, bone and flesh to something only the little psychic kitten could see. If there was ever any time where Ash felt something's stare "pierced" him, this would definitely be the time. He thought it was the time he pissed off that Scyther, but no, /this/ was definitely the new time for him. Espurr didn't even let up as Ash hoisted the little cat into the air, always keeping its head motionless and its eyes perfectly locked on Ash.

"S-so uh...I assume Espurr is trying to get a 'feel' for me?" Ash asked, vaguely remembering something from Oak's research files about how Psychic types sometimes stared intensely at new people or things, much like how other animals would sniff it.

"Feels weird, right?" Sina asked knowingly. "Like his eyes are pulling you apart, bit by bit... You should probably get used to it, because Espurr probably do that the most."

"Uh… Okay." Ash said hesitantly, as he cradled Espurr close to him and then looked straight ahead. "Maybe if I can't see the eyes looking at me, it won't work…" As Ash felt a shiver run through his spine, and his expression visibly became somewhat unnerved, Sina and Dexio just smiled. "Should've known." Ash mumbled dejectedly. The feeling was only stronger now, if anything.

"Aw, look at you two bonding~" Dexio cooed.

Ash gave him an unimpressed glance, but quickly regained his composure. "But… why didn't you have Kalos' normal starters? ….And why an Espurr?"

"Because it's cute! But no seriously, some kids took those already. There was a fat one, a Mr. Shorty McPumpkinhead, and this girl with impossible hair and shorts she shouldn't have left the house wearing…" Dexio said.

"Really, Dexio?" Sina asked with mild exasperation.

"What can I say? I'm honest. It's a gift. It's a curse. And while I'm at it, we could've just got this guy a Bidoof or something, so he should consider himself-" Dexio said with mounting irritation.

"Well, uh, but, at least we have your Pokédex!" Sina interrupted loudly and cheerily, handing Ash a flat, extendable, hi-tech looking square.

"Woah, it's amazing how far these things have progressed!" Ash gushed, as he shifted his arms to cradle Espurr in one and grab the Pokédex. "I remember Professor Oak let me play with one of the oldest models. It was so heavy and lame compared to this one!" Ash laughed, as he quickly, although somewhat awkwardly due to Espurr, opened it. "Oh, what does this button do? And this one? Wow, there are so many features! This really is the real deal!" Ash cried, seeming to completely forget about Sina and Dexio.

"He seems more excited about the Pokédex than the Pokemon…" Sina whispered to Dexio.

"As expected of a Professor's favored assistant…" Dexio whispered back.

"...Aren't we a Professor's favored assistants?" Sina quietly asked.

"...Well, yeah, but at least we're not SQUARES…" Dexio said a bit more loudly, only to see Ash now looking at them intently.

"Excuse me?" Ash asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh, uh, nothing! Nothing at all!" Dexio said quickly.

"...Where's the honesty now, Dexio?" Sina muttered, only to get quickly elbowed in the side by Dexio in return.

"I'm honest, not a moron." he hissed quietly.

"...Anyway, I'm not as deaf as you guys seem to think, so maybe I'll be hearing from you again!" Ash said with a thin veil of kindness, just thin enough to still hear the bitter tone bleeding through.

"Yeah, uh, we'll be around!" Sina said innocently, since she wasn't really responsible for Dexio's attitude anyway.

"Mhm!" Dexio said shortly, forcing a smile despite his nervousness. He hadn't failed to notice that Ash was almost certainly in better shape than him, despite being shorter.

"Thanks! Goodbye!" Ash said, back to being perfectly pleasant, as he walked off to explore the town, and get to know his new Pokémon. "...And are you EVER going to stop staring?" he asked the Espurr as he pocketed the Pokédex. Espurr just meowed softly in response, then suddenly started shaking and making an odd noise somewhere between squeaking and coughing, with a joyous expression on his face. After a second, Ash realized that the noise was laughter. "Are you saying you've been messing with me all along?!" Ash cried, only causing Espurr to laugh harder. "Yeah, we're gonna get along just fine…" Ash muttered half-seriously. After all, he'd been attacked and threatened by Pokémon at Oak's lab before. A Pokémon with an odd sense of humor probably wouldn't be too hard to deal with in comparison.

* * *

**Oh, so now you know what's so different about Ash this time around!**  
**Why, exactly? I guess you'll just have to find out!**


	2. Now For Two New Losers

**Ch 2: Now For Two New Losers**

* * *

Ash quickly realized that there wasn't much to see in Aquacorde. It was a rather simple, quaint kind of place, with nice little houses in tidy little rows, the kind of place where you'd expect to see sweet little old ladies and bright-eyed, innocent children. There was a coffee shop that seemed to be rather popular, as it was still morning and plenty of people were inside, but Ash didn't really go for coffee. He smiled a little as he remembered that Gary used to love coffee, but quickly scolded himself for realizing he wasn't supposed to remember anything about Gary, or remember the exact way Gary used to like his coffee, with not much cream but a surprisingly large amount of sugar. Defying his self-imposed rule once again, Ash remembered how Gary tried again and again to enjoy it completely plain and black like Professor Oak somehow did, viewing it as a "tough, stern kind of drink", but always finding that it was disgusting. He couldn't help but smile a little more as he did.

He remembered how, on the other hand, Professor Oak was practically the Snorlax of coffee and tea. He was like an unflinching, caffeine-seeking machine who would bravely down any such drink placed before him. Except decaf. Professor Oak despised decaf with a concealed but burning passion, as Ash found out the hard way when he bought it for him on accident. The Professor seemed kind and collected for that moment, but Ash was relegated to especially dull, arbitrary tasks that day.

Realizing he was getting distracted, Ash forced himself to focus back on the present. He'd already been through the town's center, and was heading towards Route 2 now, ready to truly see what the odd starter he had been given could do. Espurr seemed to sense his anticipation, as he became agitated and began to walk alongside him, no longer wanting to be carried. But when Ash was just coming to the bridge to enter Route 2, he was quickly caught off guard by a beautiful gated mansion, placed quite majestically next to the river. Its style was roughly similar to the rest of Aquacorde, made of clean, carefully cut, well placed stone, and it overall had something of an old-fashioned look to it, the highest part of it being several stories tall. A tower loomed in the back, and overall, Ash found it somewhat imposing. A well kept stone path directly branched off from the main path and led to a large, ornate front gate, which had the words "Xavier Manor" emblazoned on it in fancy gold lettering, and then even further to a tall, wide staircase and a very spacious front porch. This was all surrounded by a very large and diverse garden, in which Ash noticed several Butterfree and Vivillon flitting about without a care. Surely it wouldn't hurt to venture towards the mansion and take a closer look...

But just as Ash approached the front gates, Espurr suddenly turned around and mewed loudly to get his attention. There, standing behind Ash, was a rather slender, somewhat androgynous...boy? Person? They looked to be anywhere from fourteen to sixteen. Ash couldn't help but feel they were rather attractive, with alert, yet rather soft and calming chestnut brown eyes, and an angled yet rather delicate face. A pair of black rimmed sunglasses were perched just above their forehead. A faint, pleasant aroma wafted from them, and they were dressed in rather casual looking clothes, although they looked brand new. They wore an unzipped navy blue jacket with light blue fur in the hood, along with a black V-cut T-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans, which were purposely a bit tattered. They had straight, shiny, soft looking black hair that came down to their neck in the back, with shaggy bangs in the front, and soft, smooth, honey brown skin. They gently adjusted their sunglasses before speaking to Ash in a direct but rather light and easygoing voice.

"Hello! It's beautiful, no?" they said, walking up beside Ash and peering through the ornate gates along with him. Ash noticed they definitely carried themself in a very confident and self-assured manner, their posture ideal, their voice clear and crisp with not even a hint of hesitation or nervousness.

"Yeah, definitely. I was especially curious about the garden… It would be nice to learn more about the native flora, and how they relate to the Pokémon in the area… I don't even know what some of those flowers are..."

"...Hmm. I wasn't expecting you to say that, but your words are refreshing. It's always so charming to see someone concerned about nature. After all, nature plays an important role in the mythos of Kalos itself." The person said with a gentle smile, turning to look Ash directly in the eyes. "So, are we going to venture inside, or aren't we?" they asked, causing Ash to let out a short gasp of shock. The teenager before him just flashed a mischievous, dazzling white smile, and threw a Poké Ball into the air.

"Be a doll and help me out here!" they said, as the Poké Ball opened in a burst of illusionary pink and purple flower petals, revealing a small, fluffy, pink birdlike Pokémon with a white face and beak, and two small, quickly fluttering wings. As it obediently grabbed a thick mouthful of the teen's coat and began to flap furiously, Ash wondered how in the world that person expected to get anywhere… The gate must've been over ten feet tall, they couldn't possibly- Ash's thoughts were interrupted as the little pink bird gave a loud trill and both Pokémon and Trainer were enveloped in a glowing blue outline, easily floating up and over the fence in no time, the person even daintily landing on one tip-toed foot on the other side.

"Marvelous, Dahlia, simply marvelous!" the teen complimented joyously, hugging the little pink ball of feathers close as they turned to face Ash. "Come now, won't you try it too? I'd like to see the creativity, the art only you and your friend Espurr can express!"

"Uh...I'm really not sure about this, I'm basically positive there are cameras…" Ash attempted to reason.

"Petty inconveniences. Someone that has a truly artful connection with their partner won't let those things impede them! Dahlia, darling, the cameras!"

"W-wait, what are you doing?!" Ash asked, as Dahlia flew up into the air, quickly corkscrewing as she did so, producing a thick, lightly glowing blue mist from her body all the while. She stopped rising when she reached the top of the fence, and the mist practically exploded outwards from her body, engulfing the entire area.

"There! Now's your chance! No one, nothing to impede your beautiful arts! It's all yours!" the teen cheered, now only a vague, smoky figure.

"No way, I'm no crook or trespasser!" Ash shouted.

"Oh? Well, what if there was something important you were after?" the trespasser asked Ash. "Dahlia, would you be so kind as to show him what I mean?" Ash suddenly felt his bag and hat become as light as air, quickly slipping away before he could even grab them, and then rising up over the gate and falling unceremoniously into the garden. "Hm? What are you going to do now, Trainer?"

"I don't understand! Why are you doing this?! Why are you so determined to drag me into this with you? I'm not a crook, and you shouldn't be one either!" Ash cried.

The teen looked taken aback for a moment, but quickly regained their composure. "A crook, am I? Well, you are in for a surprise! A glorious surprise! Dahlia, if you would…" they said, as Dahlia's mist was blown away by a strong gale tinted with sparkling pink energy. "And as for the lovely security system…Ahem. Calem Xavier, rightful member of the Xavier family and heir to the Xavier fortune, kindly asks you to open the front gate."

"Understood. Welcome home, Calem." a cool, slick, feminine robotic voice sounded from somewhere, as the gates opened wide, and Calem simply stood there, smiling widely and laughing, as Ash simply looked on, absolutely dumbfounded.

"I was just playing around, is all! I sincerely apologize for any stress or inconvenience I may have caused." Calem said good-naturedly, giving Ash a gentle smile that reminded him a bit of his mother's. "Come in, come in, I must show you around the garden!"

"What the hell was all that?!" Ash asked incredulously. "You live here but you wanted to see me hop your fence? What, am I some security system guinea pig?"

"Oh, heavens no, I just wanted to have a bit of fun is all! Think of it as a joke, think of it as a test of character. Either way, you are correct, friend!" Calem said with a smile. "I grow dreadfully bored with this town, sometimes. It is very nice, but it isn't very large. Everyone needs a little excitement in their lives, no?" Calem said, as Dahlia floated over to Ash with his things levitating in tow.

"Uh, well, yeah, I guess so…" Ash responded hesitantly, as he grabbed his things back and murmured a thank you to Dahlia. He /would/ really like to see the garden, even if this person was rather odd.

"Wonderful! As you know, I am Calem Xavier. And you are?"

"Ash, Ash Ketchum. I'm new around here, I come from Kanto." Ash told Calem.

"Magnificent! We don't get many new people! It's old blood in this town, for the most part. Loyal generations. Beautiful, yes, but quite unsatisfying at my age." Calem said. "Well, come in, look around, make yourself at home! Plenty of space for everyone!" Calem said with impatient glee. The moment Ash stepped through the fence, Calem began talking at great length about all kinds of things, from the flower species in the garden, to the Pokémon that would visit, to the history of the mansion itself. Ash found it all very interesting, he really did, and Calem had a very interesting sort of charisma about them, despite their quirks. There was a great, circular path around the garden that the two walked along as they talked (Well, mostly Calem), but by the end of it, Ash found himself quite impressed and satisfied regardless. Calem laughed when he turned to Ash once they were about back where they started and saw he had a pencil and notepad.

"You're taking notes? Really? No one's ever done such a thing!" Calem said with excited amusement. "You really are a card, Mr. Ketchum."

"Well, you've said a lot of interesting things, and I was always told to take notes whenever I hear something important, since I could be forgetful sometimes…" Ash explained modestly.

"My, you had quite the academic upbringing, no? I'm almost jealous, it seems like such a nice habit to have." Calem said amicably.

"Well, I was Professor Oak's assistant for over five years…" Ash said. "So he thought it was really important that I get in the habit of it."

"Over five years! What a young age you started at! Ahaha, you weren't even able to go on a journey yet, but there you were, helping Professor Oak of all people!"

"Yes, I was." Ash quickly realized what he saying and caught himself. "-pretty young!" he added on with a miniscule pause, which Calem luckily didn't seem to find suspicious.

"Splendid! Now I'm even more interested to see how you partner with Espurr! Surely, there's a wealth of knowledge just waiting to be applied, no? Won't you battle with me, Mr. Ketchum?" Calem asked.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt. And please, call me Ash." Ash said. "Ready, Espurr?" Ash said to the small cat Pokemon beside him. With a brave expression, Espurr took its stance in front of Ash.

"Well, since I don't feel you're ready for Dahlia just yet, I have another beauty that should be just right. Aster, darling, let's go!" Calem shouted, as he threw a Poké Ball into the air that opened with a burst of pink petals and hearts, revealing a pink, furry, somewhat stout and plump creature with triangular, brown-tipped ears, small eyes and wings, a curl of fur on its head, and a large, curled tail.

"Espurr, Covet!" Ash ordered. Obediently, Espurr dashed forwards with a gleam in his eyes, and swiped hard at Clefairy with a brightly glowing lilac paw, causing her to let out a squeak of pain.

"Aster, raise your voice!" Calem instructed. With a determined look on its small face, Aster inhaled deep and then gave a long, trilling cry, causing pink, visible waves of energy to issue from her mouth and knock Espurr backwards as he put his paws to his ears. "Now, darling, Pound!"

"Espurr, evade and use Leer!" Ash commanded. Espurr quickly rolled out of the way of the oncoming Clefairy and then leapt back to his feet, Aster turned to look at Espurr just in time to see his eyes widen unnervingly and gleam with an ambiguous sort of malice, filling her with an odd, displaced sense of terror despite the look coming from such a small, cute feline. "Now, Covet!" Aster hesitated just long enough for Espurr to get a clean hit in, forcefully raking his claws against Aster's stomach. Aster cried out in pain, not seeming to know how else to react.

"Sing, darling!" Calem cried worriedly. Aster once again inhaled sharply, then filled the air with a gentle, soothing melody that Espurr found irresistible, steadily losing focus and becoming unsteady on his feet until he fell over, fast asleep.

"Espurr! Wake up, Espurr! Come on!" Ash called out, but it was no use.

"Now, scream to your heart's content!" Calem commanded… Which the little pink fairy did, blasting Espurr with a sustained Disarming Voice… At least until Espurr got irritated and opened his ears, while still asleep. The air shimmered briefly, and it became incredibly hot for a second, leaving both Ash and Calem sweating slightly.

"Oh no…" Ash mumbled, as Espurr's eyes shot open and it looked around in terror. With only the briefest hesitation, he moved to tightly fold his ears shut again, but it was simply too late. His eyes suddenly glowing harshly along with the two bumps his ears were supposed to be covering, a massive blast of psychic energy exploded outwards, sending the two battling teens rolling, and Clefairy flying. Flowers in the nearby gardens were torn, snapped, and broken with ease, and the leaves of nearby bushes were shredded clean off. Pokémon in the area were sent running and flying away by the blast, clearly terrified. Clefairy was face down in the garden grass, unconscious, as Ash and Calem rose to their feet.

"What terrific power! Enormous! Incredible!" Calem said, laughing carelessly as Ash dusted himself off. "Well, you win, it seems!" Calem said good-naturedly.

"...Aren't you mad about your garden?!" Ash asked, looking around as he ran over to Espurr, who seemed very surprised and disappointed, to cradle him in his arms.

"Heavens, no! That can be replaced easily. But this battle was truly what money can't buy! was the most fun I've had in such a long time!" Calem said sincerely. "Dahlia, retrieve Aster and return her to her ball. She performed beautifully." Calem ordered, tossing Aster's Poké Ball up to Dahlia. The ball was stopped in midair just in front of Dahlia's face, and bobbed alongside the fluffy bird as she flew over to where Aster was and recalled her back to its safety.

"That's a really smart Spritzee you got there." Ash said admiringly, as Dahlia flew back and placed Aster's Poké Ball in Calem's waiting hand.

"Ah, thank you, Dahlia really is such a smart girl." Calem said with a gentle smile. "Oh, I do hope you know you have something on your arm there…" Calem observed with a mildly worried tone, as Ash's eyes suddenly widened and he quickly put Espurr down to search for what Calem was talking about. It wasn't dire, just a long, red, scraped area on the forearm, bleeding very slightly, but Ash was rather concerned nonetheless.

"It'll be fine!" Ash said dismissively, with the best smile he could muster.

"I'm the one who invited you here, no? That injury is my responsibility. Come now, we'll get it disinfected and patched right up." Calem gently told Ash, as they walked over to him, only causing Ash to get more defensive. Quickly hiding the wound, Ash forced another smile.

"It'll be fine, promise!" he said again, but by this time Calem was getting suspicious.

"Oh my, do you not trust me after that joke I pulled earlier? I promise that if anyone is harmed on my watch, the situation is anything but a joke." Calem attempted to reason, but Ash dismissed it.

"Oh, well, it's just, I've already taken up so much of your time, I should really be going…" Ash muttered, steadily getting more desperate.

"Nonsense! I've been elated to make your acquaintance! This has been such fun, really!" Calem cried, with just a twinge of hurt and sadness in their usually very kind and composed voice. Ash tried not to let his regret control him, but nonetheless, he found himself hesitating.

With that hesitation, he failed to notice he was no longer hiding his injury as well as he thought.

"...Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but wasn't it larger than that? And more red? Your hand wasn't entirely covering it before..." Calem inquired, looking at the mostly covered injury more closely.

"Oh, no, I'm sure your mind just exaggerated it in the heat of the moment…" Ash tried to convince him. But now Calem was fully engaged, listening to every syllable, focused intensely on Ash's face. Quite frankly, Ash's bluffing just wasn't good enough anymore.

"Ash, I never thought I'd have to say this to anyone else ever again, but…" Calem started, their voice a bit lower than usual and dead serious. "Now, forgive me if I'm jumping to conclusions, but… That injury is already gone, no?" Calem asked, with an irrepressible look of conviction in their eyes.

"...How...how in the world…" Ash started, his mouth now dry, his eyes wide with shock.

"I've met someone like you, Ash. Her name is Serena. She's a splendid young woman, honestly. I'm sure she'd be delighted to meet you." Calem told Ash, smiling gently once again.

"...There's-there's someone else li-like me?" Ash stammered.

"There are so many things about this world that no one knows. It's truly marvelous, no?"

"W-where is she?" Ash asked with more urgency than he expected, both apprehension and excitement now beginning to churn together in his stomach.

"With me, in this very mansion!" Calem said excitedly.

"...Oh, so she's visiting now? Great! I mean...uh..that's convenient, I guess…" Ash said, still not sure how he should feel.

"Oh, no, you misunderstand! She lives with me! _It's 24/7 pleasure~" _Calem purposefully moaned the last part in a very suggestive tone, giving Ash a dirty smile.

Ash paused for a moment, his expression steadily becoming more and more unsettled. "...W-with you? H-how exactly does that..." Ash started with some embarrassment, before being interrupted by the sound of Calem's laughter. Ash even noticed Espurr joining in as well.

"You misunderstand, friend! This is a mansion. Not the cramped quarters of a normal house. Of course, Serena is a very dear friend, but there is hardly anything intimate about these arrangements."

"Why is she living with you, though?" Ash asked.

"Because she saved me, of course! Straight out of a fairytale! A truly grand occurrence! Not to mention that the aftermath put her in a bit of a… tight situation, especially if she continued to stay at her original home. But here, she can enjoy some of the finest security money has to offer!"

"Huh?" Ash questioned, curious about what exactly Calem meant by that.

"All will come to light in due time, Ash. Now, come along then. You wish to meet her, no?"

"O-of course!" Ash responded, although he wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or terrified. As they entered Calem's mansion together, Ash felt like he wasn't even half as invested in admiring the decor as he was in admiring the garden. Now, his thoughts were overrun with thoughts of who this "Serena" could possibly be, and what she could possibly be like. They went through many wonderful rooms, and up two flights of stairs, and Calem talked their way through each area, but Ash was only half listening now, too lost in his own thoughts, too busy anxiously following Calem and hoping this wasn't just an incredibly elaborate and mean-spirited joke.

Finally, they came to a very spacious and rather girly room, with a huge, tall, memory foam bed to the right, a walk-in closet, large dresser, and wide, wall mounted flatscreen to the left, and all sorts of stuffed animals located on the bed and around the room. "Serenaaaa! I have a very special visitor for you!" Calem cried.

"Huh?" Serena said, as she met eyes with Ash, the visitor in question. At first, she simply looked confused, but then, her eyes widened in recognition. Meanwhile, Ash didn't recognize anything, but he was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions as he looked at Serena. She had long, blonde hair that was just a bit wavy, and she looked to be a bit younger than either Ash or Calem. Perhaps twelve or thirteen, even though Ash knew that more than likely wasn't the case. Her face was quite pretty, in Ash's eyes at least, with a somewhat softer, fuller look than Calem's. Her large eyes were a bright, striking blue, going well with somewhat pale skin and rosy cheeks. The softness of her features was in more than just her face, so she wasn't exactly thin, but "chubby" was subjective. She wore a pink hat with a black band and white rimmed sunglasses perched on top. She also wore a black, sleeveless shirt with a white collar, and a pleated red skirt.

"Oh, uh, h-hi!" Serena said, getting off the bed to greet Ash. She was accompanied by a black dog Pokémon with a red muzzle and stomach, and bony protrusions on its forehead, back, and ankles, although Ash hadn't originally noticed. "So, uh, I'm Serena! And you are?" she asked.

"I'm Ash Ketchum, from Kanto... Calem says you're uh...you're immortal too." Ash said hesitantly, deciding to get right to the point. Serena immediately gasped and took a step back as she heard the words come out of Ash's mouth.

"How in the world… Calem! How'd you find out?!" Serena asked excitedly.

"We had a quick battle, he got a little hurt, it vanished in seconds. Rather difficult not to notice, no?" Calem explained.

"On one hand, you should really be more careful. On the other hand, I guess this really turned out well in the end, huh?" Serena said lightheartedly, as she turned back to Ash.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ash replied with a smile. "Sorry but not sorry, I guess." he continued, chuckling a little. Serena laughed a little as well before continuing.

"So...uh...this is going to sound weird, but...do you remember me?" Serena said with a shy smile. "You know...or maybe not...Professor Oak's summer camp?"

Ash stared blankly for a brief second, almost as blankly as Espurr could. Then suddenly, all at once, he came back to reality with a strong "Oh yeahhh!". He certainly was glad that working with Professor Oak had all around improved his memory, even without taking notes. "Great to see you again, Serena! Who would've thought it'd be like this?" Ash paused to think for a moment, then continued. "So wait, you were exaggerating your knee injury back then? N-not that I'm offended or anything, I understand, I just never would've thought..." Ash said.

"No, it really did bother me until we were almost back. Healing was slower back then. It was completely gone in about an hour, probably, but it stopped hurting sooner. Nowadays it'd be gone in almost no time." Serena explained.

"Yeah, that's just like how mine works!" Ash excitedly agreed.

"I'm glad you caught me dressed already, Calem said we were gonna have a practice battle when they got back from town." Serena said sheepishly. "I'd hate to look like a mess in front of someone I haven't seen in so long."

"...They?" Ash asked. "Isn't Calem an...uh…" Ash paused for a moment and blushed slightly when he suddenly realized, feeling that he should cut himself short before he embarrassed himself. "Well, okay, I guess that works fine."

"If you really want to think of me as a boy, that's fine too, I suppose." Calem said patiently.

"N-no, that's okay! I understand!" Ash replied, now somewhat flustered.

"Wonderful!" Calem said, with such a smile that Ash felt they were honestly quite relieved he said that. "But I'm sorry, Serena, I ended up getting distracted and having that battle with Ash instead. I must say, he's quite skillful, despite being new."

"Huh, I guess that's why your Espurr still looks a bit disheveled." Serena said lightheartedly. "Oh, while we're on that topic, this is my Houndour! He's a gift from Calem, even though I kept telling them there was no need." Serena said.

"...You're honestly a Houndour kind of person?" Ash asked a bit doubtfully.

"Yeah, I love dogs, and foxes! Houndour isn't scary at all!" Serena happily asserted, as she bent down a bit and Houndour playfully licked her hand.

"What exactly did you save Calem from, anyway? How'd you end up here?" Ash asked with great curiosity

"Well-" Calem started, very matter-of-factly "If you must know…"

"Calem's afraid of Bunnelby." Serena stated simply, completely interrupting Calem.

"Serry, baby! You're killing me here!" Calem objected in a whiny tone, losing their usual smooth composure.

"Come on, you don't want to get caught up in a lie."

"Well just be more vague!" Calem countered, crossing their arms. "How foolish. I, Calem Xavier, afraid of Bunnelby! I, burdened with such a grand destiny, have such a pathetic weakness!"

"If you keep being melodramatic I'll tell him about all the other stuff you're scared of too~" Serena teased in a sing-song voice.

"Okay, okay, just tell the story!" Calem poutily conceded.

"Well, it was Diggersby mating season. Calem was seven, I was eleven. I lived in Vaniville, but I was allowed to go all the way out to Route 2, as long as I had my mom's Fletchling. I had a bunch of little paths and small spaces away from the main path that I felt like only I knew, but one day, I met Calem, playing with a Bunnelby. I asked them what they were doing, and they said they were on a big secret escape mission from their bodyguards. Part of me wanted to be responsible and tell Calem they shouldn't have run off, but before I knew it, we were both playing around, because Mom's Fletchling had always been able to beat anything on Route 2, so I felt like we were both safe." Serena paused for a moment, and then continued.

"But then, that's when a Diggersby showed up. He looked really mad, since the males get more aggressive around mating season, but I hadn't worried much about that. Most of them don't really bother anyone, so I still felt safe. But I think we were probably in his territory, so that really pissed him off. He charged right for us. The Bunnelby dug away, and I told Calem to run and Fletchling to attack. I was confident, 'cause Diggersby is part Ground, but I didn't know Diggersby would be so strong anyway. Fletchling ended up swatted aside in almost no time. Meanwhile, Calem hadn't gone very far, because they were worried about me. Calem started running again, when Fletchling was out of the way, but I guess Diggersby don't like it when you try to run. That thing was on Calem in what felt like an instant, it was unbelievably fast… And then Calem was in his ears, being held up off the ground like they were just a feather, and they started crying. I knew I still had to do something, so I picked up a rock and threw it as hard as I could. I don't know what I was thinking, I just wanted it to put Calem down. Just as fast, the thing was on me, but he wasn't so lenient anymore. I don't remember much, just getting hurled around, thrashed, beaten up… I'm not even sure what made it stop. The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital. I had fractured ribs, a badly broken leg, missing teeth, a messed up hand...It was really bad." Serena gave a sigh, and then continued.

"But, of course, you know what happens after this. In not even two whole days, I was the picture of health. A medical marvel, a thing for the history books. My mother begged and pleaded that it be kept a secret, but somehow, it got out anyway. I was a media sensation. People couldn't decide if I was a freak or a miracle. Gifts, death threats, offers to be on TV, and everything in-between. I dyed my hair and cut it short for a while, and got into the habit of wearing my sunglasses. I even moved in with relatives for a while. I even had a fake name." Serena sighed again, then continued.

"But slowly and steadily, things died down. My mom fought against it right from the start, so it stayed pretty much a regional thing anyway. Kanto is so far away that you probably hardly even heard of it. People forgot, and stopped caring so much. It was a three-year ordeal, to be certain. I was just glad I could finally come back home. But still, even when I did get back, people in red uniforms with bright red hair were sneaking around our house, asking to talk to me and whatnot. They called themselves Team Flare. They only got scarier as time went on, even saying they'd track me down, and they knew where my relatives live too. That's about when Calem saw me again. I told them all about what had happened, and they said I could stay here from now on, much to my surprise. I didn't go out for a while, but eventually, everything was more or less normal again. Calem even pulled some strings to make Team Flare think I had gone to Unova."

"That's one crazy story…" Ash said. "But, I'm just...still curious, you know? I want to know more about you. More about what your life was like having to deal with this."

"But what about you?" Serena countered. "What brings you here, anyway? You're from Kanto, and you have a backpack, so I'm assuming you're on a journey."

"Well, my mom and I decided it was best to get away before people in a place as small as Pallet Town got suspicious. Then I decided that since no one knows me here, and my life is gonna be full of risks from here on out no matter what, I might as well go on a journey." Ash explained.

"That's...that's really brave, actually!" Serena said with a small blush, obviously rather impressed. "I never really thought about it like that…" she said, "B-but you know!" she said, somewhat shyly, but with conviction. "...You can't stay here forever...And I can't just be here knowing that someone like me exists. We could be the only two people like this in the world. As corny as it sounds, it's almost like we've met again for a very important reason…S-sorry, I sound stupid, probably…but uh..." Serena said, laughing a bit nervously.

"...You're saying we should go on a Pokémon journey with him, no?" Calem almost immediately asked.

"...I...I guess I am." Serena said, smiling hesitantly. "Wait, we?" she added on in confusion.

"Like hell you're leaving me here!" Calem shouted, their voice somewhat deeper and stronger than usual. "You've lived here for over four years! You had my seven-year-old brain thinking I was going to be responsible for your death! YOU were my first real friend in a life of being sheltered and hardly knowing anything! YOOUUU helped me watch Paranorman without covering my eyes!" Calem dramatically put an arm around Serena and made a wide, sweeping motion with their free arm, hand outstretched. "It's a big world out there, Serry! A big, dangerous world! And I'll be damned if you're going out there without me!" Calem declared, in an unusually deep, powerful voice.

"Ahahaha! I'm sorry Calem, of course you can come… I-if any of this is fine with Ash, that is!" she finished quickly, her tone becoming much more flustered as she suddenly realized she hadn't actually asked him his opinion.

"Oh, well, I don't mind at all! I like company!" Ash said excitedly "How about you, Espurr?" Ash asked. Espurr just stared at both Serena and Calem for a moment, saw them tense up a bit, and then turned to Ash and nodded with the smallest of smiles, seemingly satisfied. "Great! I bet this'll be exciting!" Ash cried with a wide smile.

When it came to that last sentence, you could definitely say Ash was correct. Perhaps even a bit _too _correct for his liking.

* * *

**Now, the journey properly begins in Chapter 3!**

And why have I imagined Calem in this way?

I don't know, why not?


	3. Chance Encounters

**Ch 3: Chance Encounters**

* * *

"Are you really sure you can just up and go, Calem? Won't your parents be worried?" Ash asked.

"My parents are famous trainers, and have several endorsements and investments. They're always on the move. My grandparents and the servants raised me, mostly." Calem explained.

"Oh. How did you end up with all this money, anyway?" Ash asked with genuine curiosity.

"My grandparents own the Battle Chateau, and sizable portions of the Battle Maison and the Friend Safari. We're a very big name in Pokémon, you know. I was supposed to go on a journey at thirteen like anyone else, but they became insufferably protective after the Diggersby incident. Only recently was I able to convince them I can handle myself. It'd be a shame if an Xavier didn't go on a journey, no?"

"Well, I didn't know all that…" Ash said with a mixture of sheepishness and admiration.

Therefore, after healing Espurr and Aster, the three teens were off without a hitch… Well, besides the monumental and quite time-consuming amounts of effort Calem and Serena put into deciding on clothes to bring along, which Ash had to patiently sit through in silent agony. While he was the one they were coming along with, Ash was the guest at someone else's mansion. That someone was the only reason he now knew someone like him even existed, so he begrudgingly reasoned it was a much bigger factor in how he should behave.

Dahlia was completely on board, nevermind how or why Calem felt that a Spritzee had sound advice on human fashion. Meanwhile, Houndour couldn't care less, and socialized with Espurr instead. Houndour seemed kind enough, but Espurr wasn't all too keen, especially because Houndour seemed entirely nonplussed by Espurr's staring habits, apparently just thinking it was some sort of game and staring back. Espurr just let out a somewhat disappointed mewl and turned away.

Finally, Calem and Serena finished, and the trio could get back into the outside world. Once they were back out in the garden, Calem paused for a moment. "There's still one more coming with us!" they cried, before making a loud, sharp whistling noise. Steadily, a small white flower rose into the air. It had a very small, green and white, legless Pokémon beneath it, holding it like an umbrella. The tiny Pokémon had long white ears that looked like pigtails, and a long, green, leafy 'eyelash' for each eye. It rose from an area of the garden that Ash remembered Espurr had damaged. Although he didn't know exactly what the little Pokémon had done, the area was already looking much better, and some stripped bushes even had leaf buds on them again already.

"Orchid, darling, I know you love this garden, but how would you like to come with me?" Calem asked gently, allowing the Floette to rest softly in a single palm. "Surely, there are all sorts of beautiful gardens and flower fields for you to see across this entire region, no?" Calem told Orchid. Her expression went from surprise to delight as Calem said it, and she began excitedly flying around Calem's head in circles, making little sing-song chirping noises of glee, before gently perching herself on his shoulder.

"Wow, you already have three Pokémon, and they're all Fairy types?" Ash asked. Small and cute though they were, Ash had to respect that. After all, he would've lost earlier if it weren't for Espurr's semi-fortuitous lapse in control. Still, he supposed he had to thank Espurr for that, in a way. Seeing him exercise so much power certainly made Ash glad, even proud, although so far he had basically nothing to do with that power.

"Yes! One day, I'll be a master of Fairy types. That's always been my goal, honestly. All Pokémon are precious, but Fairies have a special charm, unexplainable beauty that surpasses all else..." Calem explained, their eyes gleaming with joy at the mere thought of it.

"I'm not exactly sure what I want to do yet...after all the mess with the media and Team Flare, I sort of lost direction in my life… My mom wanted me to do Rhyhorn racing, but then I couldn't even visit her, let alone practice. But, you know, whether it's getting badges or just seeing the sights, I feel like it'll work out okay in the end." Serena said with a smile.

"That's the spirit!" Ash cried. "I felt like there was no way I could do this for a pretty long time, to be honest… But now that I'm actually here, it's...like nothing I've ever felt before. I don't want to stop feeling it, either."

The group continued to happily chatter amongst themselves as they walked. For Calem's sake, they kept up sustained conversation while moving through Route 2 at a brisk pace. Although Calem referred to their fear as being "completely manageable" now, they still seemed to become much more relaxed in Santalune Forest. Only sparse, mottled light penetrated the thick tree branches overhead, and the sounds of Pokémon filled the air.

"Hmmm...I wonder what I can capture here…" Ash wondered aloud, before seeing a rather unaware looking Scatterbug crawling along just several yards away. "Alright, I guess this is as good a time as any! Espurr, go!" Ash said, to the small kitten who was still standing beside him. Being rather small and unobtrusive, Ash hadn't really seen a reason to return him to the Poké Ball yet.

Espurr quickly ran over and took a fierce swipe at the helpless-looking caterpillar, who promptly reared up on its hind legs, gave a shrill cry, and then let loose with a copious mouthful of gooey, sticky, heavy silk, which quickly rendered Espurr just about immobile. "Espurr, break free!" Ash commanded, but all Espurr could do was struggle helplessly against the thick silken covering. The Scatterbug actually seemed to take pleasure in this, laughing and spraying Espurr with irritating black powder before escaping. The powder caused Espurr to cry out and struggle harder within the silk, and then tense up, apparently unable to move. Now feeling somewhat guilty, Ash carefully tore the silken mess away from Espurr and treated him with a Paralyze Heal and a few pats on the head, apologizing and telling him he did well the whole time. Espurr just sat and sighed. Ash could swear his eyes even looked more watery than usual, but Ash had an idea. "Calem, Dahlia knows Psychic, right? And you've implied she's a lot stronger than Espurr, right?" Ash asked suddenly. "It's really important.".

"And why is that?" Calem asked, not entirely understanding what Ash was getting at.

"I want her to teach Espurr some things. They could train together. I mean, I certainly don't know what it's like to use attacks, but she does, right?" Ash asked.

"...I never thought of it like that." Calem said with a wide smile. "The Pokémon teach each other! So simple, yet so promising! Yes, yes, let's try it right away! Dahlia! You are being promoted, at this very moment! You are now Jedi master, and Espurr is your padawan! Mold him as you wish! Teach him the ways of the force!" Calem said theatrically.

"Uh…" Ash said uncertainly.

"This is basically the kind of thing you signed up for." Serena matter-of-factly informed Ash. "They're nice, really, but the charm is just a cover. In reality, Calem can be a lot less...uh...orthodox…" Serena explained quietly to Ash.

Orthodox or not, Dahlia obediently followed her Trainer's request, and landed in front of Espurr with a sharp trilling sound, causing Espurr to immediately stand at attention. She then did some sort of odd waddle back and forth, picking up her feet one at a time, and Espurr imitated her. Apparently, they were supposed to be marching in place. Dahlia let out a trill of satisfaction, and then her eyes started to glow as she looked intensely at Espurr. Espurr concentrated intensely for a moment, his eyes flickering slowly as the glow waned, strengthened, and then waned again. Dahlia shook her entire body, ruffled her feathers, gave a few tweets, and then repeated herself. Espurr seemed to understand something new that time, as his eyes began to glow much more strongly and consistently. Dahlia gave an overjoyed little song and briefly took to the air, and from there on, things progressed well.

It essentially became like a game of telekinetic Simon Says, with Dahlia as Simon. Everything she did, Espurr would mimic. They started small and simple. Throwing pebbles, making a leaf float in place, rolling a stone in circles. Then it steadily became more complex. Orchid even decided to join in, knowing Psychic as well. The training session progressed splendidly, and Espurr gradually became more daring and confident with his psychic power, much to Ash's joy.

"It's really working!" Ash said happily, as he bit into a sandwich, made by Serena. While their Pokémon trained, the group decided they could just make lunch nearby. After all, it was now well into afternoon. The training session had taken a life of its own, and all Pokémon involved seemed to have forgotten they were actually training. The air filled with the laughter of small creatures, and all seemed well.

* * *

But Santalune Forest was long and winding, and it was rare to get through in one day. Evening and night time made the forest much more treacherous, since it was much harder to see. The wild Pokémon, while not incredibly strong or aggressive, could be quite mischievous, and were known to prank and steal from Trainers in the dark. Luckily for the group, Dahlia knew Flash. Unluckily for Ash, he was looking directly at the little bird as light suddenly blasted forth like a flash bomb from every square millimeter of her body. To be fair, he had just been expecting some orb of light energy or something, not for Dahlia to literally become like a hellishly bright living flashlight. He blamed himself nonetheless. After all, there was surely a warning about this in the research files somewhere.

The eyes of Espurr and Houndour were well suited for darkness, and as dusk fell, Espurr seemed to be at their liveliest, running about, making noise, tumbling around on the grass together, and other displays of childish hyperactivity. ...Unfortunately, there were some consequences for so much commotion at night, when many Pokémon weren't nocturnal. Take Scatterbug, for instance. The group had now wound around in such a way that they weren't actually too far from the entrance now. This was a path design choice made to accommodate for a Beedril hive that would surely be disturbed had they decided to cut a path straight through the thick grove of trees to the north of the entrance. So when Houndour playfully tackled Espurr and sent him rolling into the nearby bushes, Espurr was quickly met with an angry, familiar voice.

Seeming to recognize who it was, the Scatterbug laughed again, and aggressively rammed into Espurr with a smug expression, seeming to think this would be an easy victory once again. But Espurr got up and remained unusually calm, just looking intently at the darkly colored caterpillar. This threw Scatterbug off a bit as it quickly made some distance to prepare for any counterattacks, but it proceeded to fire a String Shot. Evidently, this was exactly what Espurr was waiting for. Espurr's eyes glowed with a strong lilac light, and the silken stream turned around before it could even touch Espurr, much to Scatterbug's surprise and horror. It quickly tried to stop, but it was too late. The silk was more than enough to encircle and then ensnare Scatterbug itself, leaving only the eyes partially uncovered. Espurr giggled with darkly childish glee as he then proceeded to telekinetically hurl the hapless Scatterbug against the base of a tree, where it stuck fast just before the silk could finish drying. To hamper Scatterbug's struggling, Espurr jabbed the helpless bug with a Covet, causing it to let out a painful cry. By time it was all over, Ash hadn't even really found an opening to give any commands. Espurr had just taken his own initiative, and apparently succeeded.

"Well, I guess a capture is a capture...and it's probably the exact same one as before. Funny how that works..." Ash said with a chuckle, as he threw a Poké Ball at the frantically struggling little caterpillar Pokémon, who was promptly converted to some sort of energy and sucked inside. The struggling from within the Poké Ball was a brief affair, and completely hopeless on Scatterbug's end. With a final, elongated 'ping', Scatterbug was captured. An expression of blissful childishness seemed to overcome Ash as he joyously picked up the Poké Ball. "You did it, Espurr! Our first capture!" Ash cried, excitedly picking up the small kitten and twirling him around. Espurr made happy mewling noises along with Ash, although he was probably more happy he got revenge.

"Well, we should probably wrap it up for the night. Espurr and Scatterbug need to rest now, and Dahlia is probably getting tired too. Plus, even though I'm excited, I don't want to end up asleep for half the day…" Ash explained, still heavily influenced by memories of Professor Oak being incredibly serious about tardiness, in the same passive-aggressive, seemingly polite way he hated decaf coffee. Sometimes, a small part of Ash honestly wanted to say "Sorry about being late, I was fucking your grandson." right to his face, just to see the surely glorious reaction. Not that it ever actually was the real reason, but it was still funny to imagine. Fortunately, every fiber of his being prevented him from ever saying something so foolish. With a bit of a start, Ash realized he was getting distracted again, so he focused back on the present.

"Yeah, you have a point." Serena agreed. "I guess getting out of this place can wait."

"Not too much longer, though." Calem mumbled, as they looked around worriedly. "This is kind of...making me uncomfortable... at night time…"

"We'll be out by tomorrow, don't you worry!" Ash said confidently.

* * *

To make a long story short, that ended up being a completely empty statement. The Pokédex was equipped with a GPS function, but in such a dense forest, its directions were often quite confusing. Perhaps the biggest mistake the group made was straying from the main path while they were still confident in their sense of direction, partially out of curiosity, partially because they mistakenly believed they could find an easier way. While Ash and Serena were incapable of long term soreness, and indifferent to bug bites and scratches, Calem held up surprisingly well with just a bug-repelling aroma from Dahlia.

By time noon rolled around, the group had become sufficiently frustrated with their lack of meaningful progress, and decided to have another training session within a decent-sized forest clearing. Ash even decided to start a sort of "Training Journal", so he could document what his team worked on, what they did, and possible ideas for future training and practicing. He also decided to keep Espurr and Scatterbug out of their Poké Balls whenever possible, so he could get a better idea of their personalities. For that afternoon's training, he already had some basic things to write down. Espurr was playful, mischievous, somewhat childish, and a bit sensitive. For him, Ash decided that it'd be most effective to continue a more lighthearted and game-oriented style of training. For Scatterbug, already a much more aggressive and competitive Pokémon, making the games more strict and competitive was likely to be a good compromise.

This went on for a couple of hours on and off, in the form of tag, the imitation game, fetch, and of course, the classic sparring match. It was in the middle of a game designed for target practice that they were interrupted. Espurr's goal was to fire rocks at sticks thrown into the air, and Scatterbug's goal was to shoot blobs of silk at them. Before he could fire, Espurr was suddenly distracted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Human footsteps. The group looked on curiously as the sound steadily came closer and closer to their clearing, but when the person finally made it into the clearing, none could be more surprised than Ash, who practically choked on his own spit when he got a good look at the newcomer.

"G-Gary?!" Ash cried in disbelief, his feelings suddenly seeming as if they were all over the place. There he was, Gary Oak, as tall and stupidly handsome as ever. He wore a black polo, unbuttoned and somewhat tight on his rather muscular, middleweight build. He also wore dark purple pants, black shoes, and a simple lilac-colored pendant. His hair was as wildly spiky as ever, and getting somewhat longer in the back, and there was just a hint of auburn stubble on his face, adding a bit of a rugged touch to how it had become so well proportioned and handsome over the course of Gary's maturation. Ash could hardly even look him in the eye, it seemed like no amount of time was going to make the damned man less attractive. "What the hell are you doing here?!" Ash continued in utter shock, not sure whether he should be overjoyed or furious.

"Nice to see you too." Gary said sarcastically, although he stopped dead in his tracks. Despite the fact that he wasn't as expressive about it, he was really about as surprised as Ash.

"I'm serious, Gary! Answer the question, you bastard!" Ash growled, while Serena and Calem just looked on in confusion.

"Jeez, Ash, it's always right to the point with you, huh? Okay, okay, you got me." Gary said, adopting a cool, composed, subdued stance, slipping his hands into his pockets as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "I'm actually glad you're here, honestly. You're half the reason, after all."

"H-half the reason?" Ash answered, feeling like he wanted to slap himself as he felt his face grow hot. "It's anger." he told himself unconvincingly. "You're...you're just angry, is all." he desperately told himself.

"Like I said before, Ash… A long, long time, ago. Stuff just isn't the same without you….It's...it's lonely without you." Gary said in a softer, quieter voice than usual. He could barely even look Ash in the eye as he said it, but he managed to accumulate more bravery as he went on. "Like, I'm not saying we have to be around each other all the time, but you know, it's better when you're somehow part of my life… Not just gone away to some far ass region."

"Gary, I told you to forget…" Ash said patiently, just loud enough to be heard, while looking at the ground.

"What if I don't want to forget?!" Gary shot back, as he came closer. "What if I feel like you don't completely want to forget either?!"

"...So that's it, huh? You're here to tie me up and drag me back to Kanto, are you? Just gonna try and pretend things are fine, huh?" Ash asked, growing more angry with each sentence.

"No! You're making this more dramatic that it has to be! What about those two, huh? Here we are, making a scene, and I don't even know their damn names!" Gary said, obviously referring to Calem and Serena. They just shuffled awkwardly in place. Begrudgingly, Ash realized Gary was probably right. With a deep sigh, he forced a smile. and began to speak again in a much calmer tone.

"Sorry about that. These are my new friends, Calem and Serena. Calem, Serena, this is Gary...He's...Well…Uh..." Ash started, finding he was becoming somewhat flustered.

"Ex-boyfriend." Gary clarified flatly and matter-of-factly, causing Ash to blush and adopt a 'why did you have to say that' sort of expression, while Calem and Serena's eyes widened. The exchange that had just taken place beforehand started to make a great deal more sense, as well. A frown accompanied Serena's shock, while Calem just looked taken aback, and rather fascinated.

"Pleased to meet you, sir!" Calem said politely.

"...I'm assuming this has something to do with Ash being immortal?" Serena asked somewhat timidly. Gary seemed thoroughly surprised by this, simply turning to Ash instead of directly answering.

"You told them?!" Gary asked incredulously. "I thought it was a secret!" he cried.

"Y-you're misunderstanding! See, that's the whole reason we're travelling together… I'm immortal too." Serena admitted. "It seems to be the same as Ash's, for the most part."

"...Damn, who would've thought?!" Gary said after a brief pause, seeming to accept it easily. "So you're actually how old? ...Uh, if you don't mind saying..."

"Nineteen." Serena answered with ease, seeming to be glad she had found someone she could actually admit that to.

"...Hmmm...interesting...so whatever the hell happened, it might've happened to both of you at around the same time." Gary said thoughtfully.

"...Well, that's an interesting thought, but my dad won't tell me anything about it, since he's barely ever around. On the other hand, my mom says that just before she was pregnant with me, my dad was an amazing trainer. He went out on a long trip into the uncharted Kalos wilderness, only telling my mom that he'd come back with the 'greatest surprise of all time'. But she said he was different when he came back. Hardly ate. Hardly slept. But still completely healthy. He wouldn't even tell her most of what had happened, seeming to regard the trip as some kind of failure. He even became more and more distant after he found out my mom was pregnant with me. I can hardly even think of his voice, I hardly ever hear it. The most caring thing he does is buy gifts and send money to help pay things. And he sends letters, of all things. Not e-mails, just handwritten letters. Carried by a Talonflame. I only wish I were joking. We don't even know where exactly he is most of the time. The letters are always so vague, or they focus almost entirely on us. Overall, he's a really weird guy." Serena explained.

"All my mom's ever told me is all the 'good' things about my dad…" Ash started, encouraged by Serena sharing the 'story', if it could be called that, behind her dad. "Honestly, the most solid thing I knew was my mom's stories about him as a Trainer, before they were even thinking of a baby. She would always get really quiet if I tried to ask why he wasn't around, or why my body is like this. It turned into a pretty big argument one day, and that's when she finally said something. It wasn't life changing or anything, and she apologized afterwards. Basically, I think what she was trying to say was that I shouldn't be like him, whatever he even did." Ash explained somewhat dismissively and anti-climatically.

In stark contrast, the actual memory ran through his mind like it was only yesterday. His mother, his mother with the youthful face and gentle smile, the one who had no trouble accepting Gary as if he were a second son, was standing right in front of his face. She was just taller, thanks to Ash's growth cutting itself short, but she seemed more like a towering Groudon at the time. She wore the most furious expression she had worn in years as she shouted at Ash in a way he was not at all accustomed to. It was like she was trying to kill him with her voice alone. 'What?! Tell you so you can go running off with the same big ideas?! Messing with things you should never mess with, doing things no person should ever do?! Leaving me here with only half the picture, lying to me and warping things to your liking?! Your father was brave, Ash. A brilliant man. I admit that. It's part of why I loved him. But he was also a fool! A fool, a coward, a liar, a miser, and a manipulator! I hate to say this Ash, honestly... But I'm glad, truly, from the bottom of my heart, that you only know the man your father _was_! The man I fell in love with! I'm glad he wasn't around to show you the man he _became_."

However, Ash just as quickly distanced himself from that memory, not liking the feel of his mother's words back then. The ominous, smothering, warning tone, the insinuation that there were a thousand words behind every emotional sentence, and that Ash didn't particularly want to hear even a single one of them. As he focused on reality again, Gary spoke.

"But yeah, it looks like I made everything pretty awkward, so I'll switch gears. What exactly were you guys doing here? I'm not too sure myself, honestly. The Pokédex's directions aren't so great in a place like this." Gary said.

"We were training our Pokémon, since we were getting frustrated with finding the way out ourselves…" Serena said sheepishly. "...Oh, I'm curious, what Pokémon do you have?" Serena asked.

"Well, I decided to leave my Kanto team back at home. I felt a little guilty, but at the same time, I'm excited about what I'll be seeing here. So far, I'm starting modest." Gary said, as he casually tossed a Poké Ball into the air, which burst open to reveal a small, light blue sauropod dinosaur with a white belly and a single dark blue crystal on each side of its body. It had large, deep blue, surprisingly beautiful eyes, crested by two beautiful, iridescent sails which seemed to be ever-so-subtly shifting colors.

The group looked on in wonder, hardly considering the little dinosaur Pokémon very modest at all. "W-where'd you get that?!" Calem cried incredulously. "Amaura are some of the most expensive Pokémon you can think of!"

"I got her as part of a research deal when I let Professor Oak and Professor Sycamore know I was coming. But really, all I gotta do is use her and document my findings and experiences. Honestly, I was expecting increased training difficulty or trouble understanding commands, since this is such an ancient species… Strangely enough, I haven't found anything of the sort. She's as intelligent and responsive as any other Pokémon, even though there were no humans around back then… Very interesting, really, but since I'm probably boring everyone but Ash here…" Gary trailed off.

"C-can I pet her?" Calem asked with poorly concealed excitement, their eyes sparkling with wonder.

"...I don't see why not." Gary said with a small smile. Calem darted over before he was even finished with the sentence. "And hey, since we're all lost here, and I haven't had a chance to really put Amaura to the test on anything but all these Bug and Flying types, why don't you battle her, Ash?"

"Well...I do admit, a chance like this doesn't come every day…" Ash said thoughtfully. "So let's get started!" he shouted. Calem quickly backed away from Amaura as Ash excitedly applied some quick medication to Espurr and Scatterbug, then backed up to the edge of the clearing, with Espurr taking a battle stance first.

* * *

"Alright, let's see what you got! Amaura, Powder Snow!" Gary ordered. The little dinosaur reared up on her hind legs and the crystals briefly gleamed with blue light. She then fired a stream of frigid, snowy air at Espurr.

"Espurr, dodge, then Psychic!" Ash cried. Espurr gracefully leapt out of the way of Amaura's frosty blast and fired off his own headache inducing blast of energy, easily knocking her on her side.

"Oh, pretty fast!" Gary noted with a sly smile. "Amaura, get close for Thunder Wave!" Gary ordered. Arcs of electricity flowed between the sauropod's sails as she ran towards Espurr with a determined expression, but Ash quickly thought of a possible way to avoid Espurr's fate.

"Espurr, catch and return!" Ash cried, just before Amaura unleashed a weak, fast travelling burst of electricity. Espurr quickly used Psychic again, trapping the blast in midair before redirecting it to hit Amaura instead.

"Alright, alright." Gary said lightheartedly, although the smile from before was steadily becoming a wide grin of excitement now.

"Now, let her have it while she's paralyzed!" Ash said, as Espurr's pupils constricted and a glow could be seen emanating from both his eyes and beneath his ears. Amaura gave a moaning, guttural cry of pain as Espurr's Psychic went to work on her.

"Take it, Amaura. You can do it." Gary said with unusual calm. Ash gritted his teeth, he knew unusual calm always meant Gary had something planned. Amaura was still standing, as well… "Now, send it back! Mirror Coat!" Gary cried with a devilish grin, as Amaura's body became coated in a translucent, glowing substance, sending a massive wave of psychic energy right back at Espurr, causing him to hit a tree with a mighty thud.

"An Egg Move?! You crafty piece of shit!" Ash spat, but honestly, part of him was quite impressed and excited, and it came out much less angry than he expected. "Espurr, hang in there! Psychic, on the defense!" Espurr's eyes glowed somewhat more weakly this time as he prepared the attack, but Gary was thinking quickly as well.

"Amaura, don't try to move too much! Just make some cover!" Gary ordered. Amaura nodded stiffly and then produced copious amounts of thick, heavy mist from her mouth and the crystals on her sides, which quickly condensed to form a solid wall of ice. Espurr's Psychic crashed against the wall as Amaura huddled behind it, keeping it cold and repairing it steadily as Espurr's mind continually attempted to breach it.

"Damn…" Ash muttered to himself. Going around at this point just bought Amaura time to counter and create more protection. One big blast could probably bust right through, but as Espurr was now, his Psychic couldn't gather up that much energy at once… Ash's eyes suddenly widened with excitement. One big blast! That was it! "Espurr, move in close, quick! We're gonna do this, one way or the other!" Ash said. Espurr quickly began to run forward with all his waning might, hoping that whatever Ash had in mind would work.

"That really takes some guts...whatever it is he's thinking." Serena said to Calem.

"I think I have an idea." Calem said with a smile, and without going into detail.

"Straightforward effort, huh? Well, hate to break it to you, but that's nothing! Amaura, cut him off with more Powder Snow!" Gary demanded. Amaura rapidly poked her head out from the sides of the ice wall and blasted more icy cold at Espurr, but the blasts were shaky and unfocused, and even a weakened Espurr could outmaneuver or misdirect them.

"This part totally wouldn't work without Thunder Wave~" Ash mused cheekily, causing Gary to grit his teeth. "Now, Espurr, concentrate and raise one ear towards the ice wall!" Espurr briefly hesitated, then did as he was told, the psychic organ beneath now glowing intensely. Amaura's sluggish attempt to intercept him was thwarted by a sudden feeling of brief but intense heat and dizziness, as the air around the two Pokémon shimmered, and the ice wall began to crack and trickle.

"Here it comes!" Calem said excitedly, while Gary and Serena just looked on in surprise. With a mighty bang, Espurr was sent rolling backwards with recoil, chunks of dirt sprayed everywhere, and the ice wall was blasted into thousands of pieces. Amaura went sailing through the air, colliding with Gary in the process. She ended up on top of his sprawled out body, unconscious.

"Wow…" Ash said to himself with amusement, stifling laughter as he picked Espurr up and quickly went to help Gary up as well. "You're okay, right?" Ash asked, as Gary returned Amaura and steadily sat up.

"Yeah, you dick." Gary said with mock anger, smiling despite being in a bit of actual pain. He took Ash's hand, which Ash had outstretched without really thinking, causing Ash to flush crimson as Gary rose to his feet. "What're you getting all blushy about? You're the one who offered." Gary asked snidely, noticing Ash's expression.

"It was a reflex!" Ash cried. "God, you can't even be less of a smartass when you lose." Ash grumbled.

"Where would the fun in that be?" Gary asked with a wry smile. Ash couldn't help but giggle a bit in spite of himself. "But really, nice job. I really didn't see that coming, you definitely know how to work with what you've got." Gary complimented.

"Thanks… You were really good too… it reminds me of when the Professor had my mom and I come watch you at the Indigo League… I didn't even like you much back then, and you were still so rough around the edges, but your battling really… Moved me, somehow." Ash said.

"Ugh, don't even talk about that, I totally thought I'd do better." Gary groaned. "That was like being good in the way any ol' small town kid is good compared to his friends. That was nothing like being _great_." Gary said.

"Still, it sure did look great to me…" Ash admitted, and now it was finally Gary's turn to blush ever-so-slightly.

"Oh, come on now…" Gary mumbled, as he put a hand behind his head. Calem called to them shortly after, with a cheeky tone.

"Are you QUITE SURE you two are exes?" they called, causing Ash and Gary to blush and quickly become defensive. Serena giggled, but Calem couldn't help but feel it was a little forced.

"Whatever, Calem!" Ash cried, quickly coming back over to his two travelling companions.

"Now that the battle is over, why don't we just focus on getting out of here, huh?" Gary suggested, choosing to ignore Calem's questioning joke.

"W-we?" Serena asked a little too quickly, in a voice that sounded just a little too confused, although no one but Calem so much as raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we're still in this clearing, and I'm still lost. Helping me out is the least Staryu here could do, since he fainted my only Pokémon." Gary said.

"...Or you were just gonna stick around for a while either way…" Serena responded dryly. And Staryu? A pet name? Eyeeerooolllll.

"Yeah, you caught me. I guess you really are as old as I am, clever girl." Gary said with a wink and a bit of playful charm, although Serena didn't seem so impressed.

"Heh...Well, if you're keeping Ash's secret, you can't be so bad." Serena said, forcing pleasantness into her voice, although only Calem could really tell, and by now, they were almost entirely sure why Serena was acting this way.

"Okay then, let's go, everyone!… And Gary, I guess I really am glad you're here…" Ash admitted. Calem almost laughed as Serena reflexively crinkled her nose a little. This was gonna be fun.


	4. Connections

**Ch 4: Connections**

**I'm aiming for a somewhat more distinct feel/direction with this story, without creating something that completely alienates everyone or goes over their heads, since I know that fics about "improved" Ash are already a tricky subset of fanfiction (and the niche may already be somewhat saturated). So just as a warning, things may not always be as you expect them to be. Unless you're too clever for me, which is an extremely real possibility. Was that too vague? Probably. But that's the fun of reading a story, isn't it? Wanting to know what happens next.**

* * *

As the temporarily expanded group traveled along, Ash and Gary only grew more comfortable with each other. Serena watched with an odd sense of irritation as Ash walked closely with Gary, periodically looking at a notepad he had while making sure he didn't run into anything. Gary hadn't been lying when he said he was studying Amaura, so he was taking notes on the battle he had just had. Ash was intensely interested, and quite honestly, a bit jealous.

"So what's it like so far?" Ash asked with utter fascination.

"A highly novel experience, to say the least. Amaura, like other fossil Pokémon, seems to go against the theory that Pokémon became more intelligent through human interaction. But then again, it shows that Pokémon don't necessarily have direct understanding of human words. This one's mother was revived directly from a fossil and displayed a basic comprehension of three tested languages after no more than ten minutes of exposure to each. A robotic control attempted to introduce each language first, and she expressed confusion, discomfort, and minimal understanding until a human personally repeated the attempt, after which she became much calmer and more responsive."

"Yet we still don't know exactly how acquisition works, or why every Pokémon is capable of it…" Ash brought up, his brow furrowed and his thumb and forefinger lightly placed around his chin.

"It's a form of highly specialized instinctive telepathy, perhaps a sort of evolutionary carry-over from Mew… We know that... But how exactly the process can adapt so quickly to any sort of particularly advanced brain, even if entirely unfamiliar, is truly beyond comprehension… Likely, it takes advantage of key structural similarities, but for the love of God, there are Pokémon made of ice, rocks, lava, and gas! What 'similarities' could there possibly be?!" Gary shouted to no one in particular, as if angry at the world for posing such an odd challenge.

"I still think metaphysical research needs more funding before we can figure that out." Ash added in.

"Meh, whatever, that crap's mostly just pseudoscience and voodoo so far. It hurts my brain, I like stuff I can actually deal with, y'know. But that kind of stuff is right up your alley, you've always been a weird thinker. Hell, you don't even come off as smart unless someone bothers to look closely." Gary said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Ash cried. "I is extremely intelligibles, I will has you know." he said, causing both he and Gary to burst out laughing. Serena, who had been watching and listening intently for reasons she knew but wasn't ready to admit to, had to turn away for a moment. First walking closely, now making dumb jokes? When were these two gonna stop?!

"But man, since you have that Espurr you're probably gonna have to wade through all that weird mumbo jumbo. Pfft. Good luck." Gary said sarcastically.

"It's not really mumbo jumbo if you would bother to find the logic in it." Ash said in an uppity fashion, relishing the chance to sound intelligent even more now that Gary had made that earlier remark… Not that he wanted to impress him or anything, not at all...this was surely stuff he knew already, Ash was just engaging in typical conversation... "I'm sure you know that psychic abilities, however heavily modified and adapted to the Pokémon in question, are an almost endlessly adaptable core tenet of how many of their abilities work. Even the process of evolution is recorded to give off intense readings of self-contained psychic energy. Moreover, psychic energy is closely tied to life energy, and many leading researchers have accepted that it must be taken more seriously if our understanding is to advance. Life energy and the concept of souls as a legitimate part of biology are steadily coming to the forefront of Pokémon biology, whether you like it or not." Ash said, feeling rather impressed with himself.

"Nice lecture Ash, must've taken you a week to put that one together." Gary teased. Ash scowled, but managed to maintain composure.

"Well, what about the massive flexibility in Pokémon breeding? What about Ditto? How does it not only acquire the necessary mass for any transformation, but become so exact it can produce viable offspring?"

"Thin tendrils of barely-detectable ectoplasmic matter, akin to Ghost type matter, are deployed to acquire the subject's DNA… Volume is changed thanks to the extremely flexible and loose structure of the body, but the adding of mass is only an illusion, created by a subconscious field of...psychic energy…" Gary grimaced, and Ash grinned, but Gary continued regardless. "-that artificially approximates a realistic weight and density, no matter the complexity. The strain of that explains why the transformation is generally short-lived and lacking in stamina..." Gary explained with some reluctance.

"Even if that theory weren't; ahem, so much bullshit, it still supports what I'm saying about the importance and ubiquity of psychic ability." Ash countered smugly.

"But there's got to be a logical explanation for it! Unlike the base principle of utterly vague pseudo-religious bullshit metaphysical biology suggests, where they say its basically the same as magic!" Gary countered, his right eye twitching slightly as he did.

"Then where does the energy of psychic power come from?! Internal nutrient stores are nothing but a catalyst, the energy overall released can be exponentially higher! One of the best possible explanations is that it is an extension of the soul, which the physical bodies of Pokémon interact with more intimately than any other life form." Ash explained.

"Here we go." Gary muttered, as he started to steadily walk away from Ash, who continued to busily explain.

"In turn, this lends explanation to a Pokémon's ability to rapidly mature and grow stronger through bonds and conflicts with others. By battling, the soul, the psychic energy of the opponent, could become more vulnerable as it comes into continuous active usage. By successfully defeating opponents, they force them to release a surplus of excess energy that can then be absorbed and utilized by the winner. In addition, by receiving the emotions, feelings, and energy of humans and other Pokemon, a Pokemon's self image changes and matures, and their own power grows."

"Evolution is perhaps a physical manifestation of this, as with the required stimulus, the Pokemon's body and soul 'harmonize', in layman's terms, creating a newer, stronger, improved body to reflect the changes from within." Gary was at least several feet away now, looking at Ash from the corners of his eyes with a rather tense gait and a subtle, disbelieving, open-mouthed frown. Meanwhile, Calem and Serena were listening more closely now, because Ash speaking like this seemed novel and impressive in comparison to his usual simple, straightforward, merely somewhat witty ways.

"This could likely even be tied to the observation that eggs hatch far faster when with Trainers, and the suggestion that Pokémon is in fact a single species with a wide variety of subspecies…" Ash casually sauntered over to Gary and continued to speak, even louder and more passionately now. "In this case, Pokémon would be reflections of themselves, ourselves, and the world as a whole, acquiring new subspecies as time progresses as perceptions change. Instead of a strict reliance on genes, their souls can possibly play a great role in determining their body plans as well. Perhaps that is why varieties such as Klink, Muk, and Voltorb seemed to have only come into existence relatively recently, and why Foongus came to mimic an invention as recent as the modern Poké Ball. We most likely have to accept that there is an aspect that transcends conventional biology and evolution at play."

"Or we could simply accept that you need to shut the fuck up and stop wasting everyone's time." Gary grumbled.

"Whose time am I wasting? We're all stuck in a forest. Would you rather we just walk in awkward silence instead of talking to pass time?" Ash snappily answered.

"Well, it's the...just that...the average person would find it more interesting if you...uh..more people, hypothetically speaking, would be engaged if you...nevermind."

"What do you mean, more interesting for the average person? We're just four honestly rather unusual people, including our Pokemon. I think this whole topic has been way more interesting than any petty small talk or shallow story-sharing." Ash countered defensively.

"I was pretty interested actually. It overall unifies and makes sense of awkward questions better than anything else I've heard." Calem argued.

"Yeah, Ash obviously put a lot of time and effort into his studies, you can't just belittle him like that." Serena added in with mild disdain and disgust, sounding somehow personally offended.

"Goddamn, give people any ol' broad, vague, impressive sounding concept and they immediately buy into it. What's the world coming to?" Gary griped. "Maybe not everyone fucking cares about this stuff."

"...So if you don't, that's still 75% compliance…" Ash reasoned.

"No, but other people though!" Gary said with mounting frustration.

"What other people? That's irrelevant right now."

"I'm just saying, _other _people don't always want to hear you talk about this stuff. It's off-putting. You're shoving too much down their throats."

"But I don't speak like that to _other _people, I spoke like that because its _you._" Ash argued.

"Maybe you do it without realizing. Just saying." Gary stated with an air of finality.

"...What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Ash shouted after a brief pause.

"I don't know! Nevermind! " Gary shot back. The last line did indeed convince Ash to give up, despite the fact that it didn't make him wonder any less.

* * *

In the end, day two came and went, and the group was still in Santalune Forest. With little else to do, training and battling took up most of the day. Espurr continued to hone his psychic abilities, now focusing on range, stamina, and the somewhat more daring and risky matter of employing his psychic organs in combat. A fully uncovered blast was highly destructive, as well as an exhausting, harrowing experience for Espurr himself. However, one ear provided a much more manageable although still rather taxing and self-destructive power. By far, the most promising method was sliding the ears back slightly and uncovering just small areas of the psychic organs, releasing a relatively large but far more manageable and less stressful amount of psychic power. To compliment the training process, Dahlia and Orchid began to teach Espurr, Amaura, and Aster the basics of Calm Mind, with mixed but overall positive results. Serena's Houndour took a more straightforward approach, taking advantage of the massive amount of Bug types in the forest to train with relative ease.

Gary warmed up to Calem quite well, taking a marked interest in their Pokémon and complimenting them on already being relatively well trained. In fact, Calem was able to talk about many Pokémon, especially Fairy-types, on equal footing, impressing Gary significantly when combined with Calem's well-practiced charisma. Through Calem, Gary even learned about Ash and Serena's history, and the history between Serena and Calem theirself.

By time night fell, Gary felt he'd have to be an idiot to not sense Serena's jealousy. She was poor at hiding it. Not only that, but Gary held onto an immortal teenaged boyfriend for three and a half years and he studied beings that very often had emotional responses incredibly similar to humans. He damn sure HOPED he knew something about jealousy. For one, he noticed that it was never anything too overt, just all the little things Serena did or didn't do. Being too defensive. Pointlessly engaging in conversation with Ash, butting in if it were just Gary speaking. Paying too much attention to him. Not enough attention to him. The shifts in her body language, the looks she gave. It added up very quickly, and became something Gary simply couldn't ignore. At first, he wasn't going to address it. Let her be jealous. Whatever. He'd be gone soon, it was honestly a little funny. But part of him did actually want to get along with Ash's new friends. After all, if he got along with them, then maybe that gave him and Ash a better chance of- No. That was the past, unfortunately. How dare he have such shallow motivations for friendship, anyway? At this rate, he'd actually deserve Serena's disdain… But then again… Confrontation never hurt...

"...So." Gary said, sitting a modest distance away from Serena as they were all gathered around a campfire. She was in the process of making stew, and Gary carefully waited until she stopped stirring to speak. "Serena, are you jealous of Ash and I?" Gary said, not even bothering to be discrete. It was just an outright elephant in the room, and Gary was never one for tiptoeing unless absolutely necessary.

"W-what?!" Serena cried, jumping a bit at the question.

"THANK YOU. YOU ARE SO REAL." Calem yelled out loud, while Ash just looked on with a wide eyed expression.

"Serena, please. Let's be adults here. I'm a researcher. A scientist. I think I can discern these things with reasonable accuracy. And let's be honest, I am treated on a whole different level than how Ash is, even though you haven't interacted with him much more than me." Gary stated calmly.

"What of it?! Isn't this more than a little frank and intrusive?"

"Well, yeah, since we're being honest. It is, in a way. But rather than dodging the question... Which makes you more suspicious, by the way; I figured you could answer the question. Let me just explain myself. One, I am not a very subtle man when something drives me. I can be kind of a douche. I may be making a mistake, but I do not currently believe I am. Let's get that out of the way right now. Two, there are multiple reasons you could _possibly_; remember, _possibly_ be jealous. I was romantically involved with Ash, and since you two had very similar upbringings and circumstances, I believe some assumptions can be made. Correct me if I'm wrong." Gary informed her, before continuing.

"Were you lonely, Serena?" Gary asked, his tone suddenly much more gentle and sincere.

"...It was only my mother and I… and my mother would always fuss when I was younger, worrying that I would show off or hurt myself...so..yes, I was very lonely at times. Its part of why my mom started to let me go out to Route 2 early…"

"Mhm. Ash and I would probably be the same. Hardly anyone else in a town Pallet's size was comparable to our age and range of interests. We always used to fight and argue, but even then, we were awful at just staying away from each other." Gary explained. "So, then, Calem is your closest friend, correct?"

"...Ugh...Yeah, obviously, Calem is very special to me. I mean, I lived in their damn mansion for years, kinda hard not to feel that way."

"Understandable. But Ash is a friend from childhood. A friend who apparently did something that meant a lot to you, so you still remember it, even after so many years passed."

"Yeah, and?" Serena asked impatiently "This isn't spotlight hour you know, I just hope you're going somewhere with all this pretentious crap."

"Now, you're finding out that this childhood friend, whose memory you held onto, built up, and possibly even idealized over so many years, is really incredibly similar to you. Someone who will finally understand you. Someone who you can be entirely comfortable with. It's an incredibly relieving feeling, isn't it?"

"...Yes…" Serena slowly agreed.

"But I'm getting in the way of that precious feeling, aren't I?"

"..."

"Anyway. I say that because that too is derived from the history between Ash and I. It's almost exactly how I felt when Ash and I managed to start being friends again. It was like this huge weight was lifted off my shoulders, all this anxiety, all this stress, just steadily dwindling. All thanks to him." Gary said, causing Ash to squirm a little bit in his spot, feeling his face grow a bit hot from something besides the campfire. "So here's what you've been waiting for, Serena. The big question. Frank, straightforward, a tad invasive, quite loaded, but here it goes. Answer it truthfully, that's all I ask." Gary then inhaled, exhaled, and finally uttered the question.

"Who's the one you have a crush on, Ash or Calem?"

Immediately, the faces of the other three teens went crimson, and incredibly conflicted. "I saw it coming and I still wasn't prepared…" Calem moaned.

"T-that's none of your business!" Serena screeched

"Would you rather keep taking that offended, evasive tone with me, and continue to let frustration and dissatisfaction build up, or answer the question, face your feelings head on, and come out a more experienced person in the end?"

"But that's not fair! You have me in a corner! You can't just ask that in front of them, and make me...say this kind of thing!"

"It is kinda fucked up, you know." Ash added in agreement.

"I literally started out saying that I can be a douche, were you asleep?" Gary said, completely undaunted. "But I think that if she answers truthfully, it'll ultimately help us all out. It might hurt or be awkward at first, but we'll all ultimately learn from it, won't we?"

"You're invading her privacy!" Ash shot back.

"Because I suspected that she held an irrational and unfair mindset towards me, one that impacts both of you as well. At least this way, she can hate me for a legitimate reason. I'm only trying to help without making this even more drawn out and obnoxious than it would be otherwise, since it's not like the problem would just go away." Gary patiently explained.

"You really do have no shame, huh?" Ash grumbled, not sure what else to say.

"So, Serena, what's the answer? You can whisper it, if you want.

"Well, it's, hard to say…" But unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there was someone with even less subtlety than Gary in the area who was perfectly willing to answer. Someone who could detect thoughts, was about a foot tall, and was covered in fur. This someone, Espurr, let out a loud mewl and pointed to both boys at once.

"H-huh?" Calem cried, now entirely confused. "Why is he...pointing at both…"

"B-because it could be both of you, I don't know!" Serena cried. "Are you happy?!"

"Now _this_ is interesting." Gary said with a smirk.

"A-are you serious?!" Ash stammered.

"Like I just said, I don't know! You're both wonderful, honestly, but I don't want to be so rash that I just blindly have feelings for the first people to be close to me… And wouldn't traveling together be odd..." Serena explained, blushing.

"Well...we've already lived together so long that I can handle just about anything from you. I'm sure I'd make do no matter the circumstances that could eventually arise, hypothetically speaking. I think of you more as a sibling, really. But I mean, let's be honest, it's not like I haven't thought about it." Calem said lightheartedly, laughing a bit.

"Yeah, you're like a little sibling...Who happens to be taller. And do most of the providing. And not be related at all. And be pretty attractive. Do you see my problem?!" Serena cried.

"Of course, but that's fine. However it is you feel at the end of the day, you're still Serena."

"Thanks, Calem… b-but..as for Ash...w-well, uh, how do you feel about me, first of all?!" Serena asked in a panicked, uneven tone.

"..I'm thrilled you're like me. And I really do think that we could form a very close bond… But… I'll agree with Calem, in a way. Nothing has to be rushed or anything. If we just take it one day at a time, and steadily learn more about each other, I don't think it's incredibly important whether we do or don't find ourselves together. Either way, that's not the biggest concern. I'm not going to rule anything out. We'll face things as they come." Ash said, keeping as calm as possible.

"O-Okay then…" Serena answered.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Gary said pleasantly.

"Not so fast. You're under a certain obligation to reciprocate, no?" Calem asked, their eyes gleaming with mischief.

"..What's that mean…" Gary said half-knowingly, fidgeting ever so slightly.

"You know exactly what it means. No one here is stupid. You're Ash's ex, and everything was great until Ash decided to break up with you due to the worries of lifespan and physical differences, no? So is this really a no-strings-attached unorthodox attempt to get us to face our inner problems…" Calem looked Gary dead in the eye, and then continued. "...Or a gambit in which you bet on Ash due to Serena's idealized memories and me being more likely to only be seen as a sibling." Gary froze, and for just a moment he felt as if he were bare naked.

"So in the end, one of two things happens. Ash ends up with Serena, and you're hoping that when reality hits, it'll make it easier to get over him. At the same time, you can stroke your obviously abundant ego, since you've set your beloved up in a theoretically perfect relationship…you've made the 'ultimate sacrifice', and you are the best person ever now! Hooray! Wow, maybe if it-_shame-_doesn't work, Ash will remember how good he had it and come back! OR, Ash doesn't end up with her at all, and you can steadily sweet talk him back into your arms! How's that? I'm in the ball park, no?" Calem asked, with a steadily widening grin.

Ash was red-faced, fidgety, and confused all over again. Serena was now also looking at Gary with a wide, expectant grin, and for a moment, all Gary could do was fidget about with a hot face and a scowl. "You little shit...you think you're so damn clever, huh?" Gary grumbled.

"I try." Calem answered simply, holding back a series of sniggers.

Gary sighed deeply, and then spoke. "Okay, that was more or less the plan, I admit… Sounds a whole lot shittier both in planning and intent when you just lay it all out and bust my balls like that, but I digress…" Gary sighed before looking at Ash and continuing to speak. "Just so you know, Ash, I only want you to be happy. Yes, for the sake of honesty, I wish you could find that happiness with me, but if you do find what makes you truly happy, I will not interfere with that, I promise."

"Thank you, at least for that, Gary…" Ash said after a brief pause. "But I still feel like it'd just be too difficult for me to bear...I just...I don't know.."

"I understand." Gary said with notable disappointment.

"Wait a minute though!" Calem excitedly threw in.

"What?" everyone else near-simultaneously asked.

"You know how people in the League finals have at least met legends before, if not actually have them?" Calem asked.

"Calem, what does that have to do with this at all?" Gary said, although Serena seemed to be getting it.

"Calem, you can't possibly mean-" she started.

"Oh, but I do mean, Serry." Calem interjected. "Two of us are immortal, I'm rich, Mr. Oak here is a strong, handsome, seasoned researcher and revels in being a crafty bastard. We could accomplish a lot together…. We could turn this adventure from valuable to absolutely priceless."

"Calem, I'm not liking where this is going…" Ash said warily "It doesn't seem-"

"Safe? _You can't die_, Ash. Possible? As far as we know, _**you can't die**_, Ash. How's that for possible? So I'm going to say it. We're going to become strong enough to find and confront Xerneas, the great Life Pokémon itself… And, if need be, we will demand it to remove your immortality. Why, I even suspect it's at least indirectly the source of it in the first place." Calem said.

"Wow, there's no way this can go wrong at all." Gary mumbled sarcastically.

"Wow, I'm okay with my dick endlessly throbbing for Ash despite the knowledge that there's something I could've done to help him and perhaps get back together with him!" Calem exclaimed mockingly in a much deeper voice than usual, imitating Gary's. Ash and Serena giggled in spite of themselves, while Gary just grumbled some more.

"I guess there's no harm in trying...We are on a journey anyway…" Ash reasoned, steadily coming around. "And think of the research."

"Really, the research? Of all things, that's still what you're thinking about?!" Gary snapped.

"Think of how loaded we'll be if we conduct _good _research and bring back _good _research samples~" Ash persuaded in a deeper, richer, almost seductive tone, causing Gary to pause for a moment, then widen his eyes in childish excitement.

"We can afford an on-site fully-equipped scanning research arena to study moves in real time?!" Gary cried excitedly.

"WE CAN AFFORD _SO MANY_ RESEARCH ARENAS, GARY! _SO_. _**MANY. WITH LASERS! SCIENCE LASERS!**_" Ash shouted back.

"HELL YEAH, LET'S DO IT!" Gary screamed, as they both seemed to escape into some sort of obscure nerdy fantasy world beyond the comprehension of either Calem or Serena.

* * *

The next day, things seemed to be looking up for the quartet. By noon, Dahlia was able to see the exit of the accursed forest, and the group graciously entered the much more navigable and well lit Route 3 within an hour. Calem grimaced at the prospect of Bunnelby in the area, but even Aster could defeat them, which gave Calem a much needed boost in confidence. They seemed rather determined to find a specific Pokémon, in fact. Azurill. Calem combed tall grass and the edge of the route's large pond in sheer determination, so set on their goal that the rest of the group decided they might as well make the best of helping him out. Calem was especially irritated when Serena gave a shout of excitement and asked the group to come over to a patch of violently rustling bushes… Only for her Houndour to come out, fighting a fat yellow and blue snake with tiny, feathery wings and a drill for a tail.

"A Dunsparce?!" Calem cried, utterly heartbroken. "Those are hardly even that cute! And definitely not Azurill!" Calem pouted.

"Well fine then, its for me! I've scanned it already! Not only are they extra rare, but this one has Serene Grace, and Agility! And it's adorable, so there! Houndour, Smog!" Serena shouted. The black dog issued a large volume of billowing black smog, engulfing the Dunsparce and leaving it hacking and writhing. "Now, Ember!" Serena commanded. The fat snake was bombarded with small embers, causing it to curl up tightly and then suddenly lurch forward with incredible speed, barreling into Houndour with its now rapidly rolling body, knocking the dog to the side.

"Houndour, watch out!" Serena cried, as Dunsparce rolled again, faster this time, tiny pebbles and dirt flying out from behind it now. Luckily, Houndour managed to get out of the way just in time to fire a barrage of small fireballs at Dunsparce, who was so distracted by the pain of the attack that it crashed into a tree. With a triumphant cry, Serena ordered Houndour to use Smog again, then quickly threw a Poké Ball before the winged serpent could do anything else.

With three slow shakes, Dunsparce was captured. Serena laughed heartily, seeming the happiest she had since before the group entered the forest. While she held up the Poké Ball in one hand like a trophy, Ash noticed he paused before he congratulated her. She was… rather easy to look at, after all… Wait, no! What was he thinking?! "_You're thinking about how she says she might have a crush on you." _ a voice sounded in his head. Well, duh. That didn't make anything easier, it wasn't like he literally didn't know that. "_Yeah, but how do YOU feel?" _the voice asked. "_Gary still wants you too. What an idiot, huh? He didn't make anything easier after all." _ the voice reasoned. Ash tensed a little as he considered this. "_So what do YOU want?" _the voice sounded. Ash paused, hesitated, but the voice continued for him. "_I'll tell you. You're a greedy little fucker. You want the possible stability and happiness afforded by a relationship with Serena… but you're used to Gary, and you want the love and deep understanding you used to share back."_

Ash inhaled sharply, not liking that thought at all. Both? He was hardly the kind of person who should even have one! "_Look at you, getting all worked up. Listen! Gary came all this way largely because of you, right? And Calem has suggested that you confront Xerneas about this. Don't lie. You're getting your hopes up. You're thinking "if this is undone, we can finally be together!". You're thinking about how much you didn't want to end it in the first place._ _You're thinking of jumping the gun and getting back into it right now. Of course you are. After all, you've already decided to chase after a legend. You can't die. Might as well just be reckless, right? Might as well just screw the whole damn world, because you're Ash Ketchum. And for some unfathomable reason, your needy little teenage brain simply refuses to let go of Gary, in all his flagrant douchebag glory. 'But he only means well!' , you're arguing right now. 'He's a good guy, really!' Pfft. But at the same time, it's thinking about what it'd be like to latch onto Serena." _

Ash was snapped out of his troubling reverie by the continued sounds of celebration and congratulations over Serena's capture. In the end, Calem couldn't even stay upset, knowing that at least Serena was happy. "Well, I suppose that's quite alright. I'm sure we're all growing weary of the wilderness, so let's just hurry ahead to Santalune, shall we? Azurill is more common on Route 22 anyway." Calem conceded good-naturedly, their usual light, sweet, direct tone now back in full force. Ash emphatically agreed, now accepting anything as a reason to not think so hard about the situation he was in.

"Well, I'll go ahead on my own then. We're out of the forest now, I got my point across, so there's no reason for me to hang around anymore." Gary explained. Serena looked quite pleased for a moment, but when she almost instinctively turned and saw Ash's reaction, she wasn't quite so sure anymore. His face was furtive, and he wore a frown as he looked anywhere but towards Gary. A war raged in his head, making him unsure whether or not he wanted Gary to go. Would he only make things more awkward? Would it be safe to become so close and vulnerable all over again? Would their feelings distract from more important things? Ash just wasn't sure.

"Wouldn't we be more efficient if we more or less stuck together?" Calem asked quickly, before anything else could be said.

"I've probably started a big shift in your overall dynamic… I don't want to make things any more strange." Gary explained sheepishly.

"Going by your logic, wouldn't it overall be beneficial if we learn how to adapt to these challenges? Not only did you accelerate them, but they probably would've arisen anyway. Besides…" Calem started, with a teasing smirk. "No one ever said you can't share."

Ash, Serena, and Gary all went brick-red.

"S-share?!" Serena cried "I-I never even said I would date anyone!"

"Well, yes, I suppose a triangle is fine too. Maybe even better, if everyone's in agreement." Calem said as if it were the most mundane thing in the world. Nearly everyone blanched.

"L-let's just worry about this kind of thing later!" Gary suggested, trying to sidestep the very odd conversation. "If I stay in the damn group, will you shut up about it?!"

"Yeah!" Ash almost immediately agreed. "This is really just too much for one day!"

"Sorry, sorry. It was only in jest. You are welcome to think about it, but I don't mean to make anyone too uncomfortable." Calem clarified.

"I guess I can stay then…" Gary conceded with a sigh. "Even if we are pretty much a train wreck of things we only half understand right now, at least that makes it more probable to improve from here on out."

"But that's what makes it fun, no?!" Calem asked excitedly, only causing the other group members to groan deeply and begin walking towards Santalune.

If anything, this journey definitely wouldn't be boring.

* * *

**Yeah, I decided to cut through a bunch of tiptoeing, subtle buildup, and improbable misunderstandings to just get right to the nitty gritty of it. Or at least, how they truly feel about one another. If you feel uncomfortable, I suggest you stop reading from here on out. This could very well progress to polyamory, I've recently been very interested in attempting to positively portray such a relationship. On the other hand, if you are interested, or perhaps even like the story, then keep reading. I suggest you review as well. Your feelings are valued, honest!**


	5. Move Theory

**Ch 5: Move Theory**

* * *

When the group finally reached Santalune, no one really stopped to look closely at anything. Instead, they all immediately opted for a trip to the Pokémon Center, and a bath. Dahlia was effective at keeping bad smells at bay, but there was only so far you could go before you started to feel gross. Once that was out of the way, and they had their rooms for the night, everyone decided they could just relax. Looking for an Azurill, catching Dunsparce, and travelling all the way to Santalune had used up most of day three already anyway. Everyone except Scatterbug, that is. By the looks of things, he'd never been inside of a Pokémon Center before, and he was incredibly restless. He would climb on things, attempt to chew fabric, and squeeze his way into tight areas. Unlike a normal caterpillar, he was also exceptionally noisy, making trills and odd little cries at just about every new thing he encountered.

Eventually, Ash decided enough was enough, and he had to take Scatterbug outside for a while.

"What is it, buddy?" Ash asked with tired eyes, as he noticed that Scatterbug still didn't really calm down. Scatterbug raced about in circles as fast as his stubby legs would carry him, then suddenly spotted a low bush and dashed over to it, balling up tightly beneath it. Ash just watched the spectacle with only a basic idea of what could possibly be going on, at least until the brilliant light started to emanate from Scatterbug's body. His body became thicker and coated in thick fur, and when it was over, even his head looked somewhat different, being a bit larger and lacking the antennae. He still had the same large eyes, but with new khaki markings on his face.

"Woah, I didn't know you were going to evolve!" Ash cried, as he took a small notepad and pen out of his pocket and began scrawling notes in it. Good thing the Professor had always told him to have at least one notepad and writing utensil on hand. He reasoned the evolution made sense though, since Scatterbug were known to mature only slightly more slowly than the rapidly evolving Bug types that filled similar niches in other regions. On top of that, they had been in a few battles against wild Pokémon already, and they had been training a lot.

Spewpa immediately became much calmer after evolution, and was content to simply butt his head against Ash's head in playful happiness. Ash picked him up and carried him back into the Pokémon Center, excited to show everyone in the morning.

When morning did come around, Ash immediately got quite the fuss, especially because it'd only be a short time before Spewpa completed maturation and became a Vivillon.

* * *

"Oh, I wonder what patten he'll have?!" Calem asked excitedly as the group left the Pokémon Center to look around the next day. Both Espurr and Spewpa were riding on Ash's shoulders, since it was originally only Spewpa but Espurr quickly grew envious. "Not all Vivillon around here actually end up with the pattern for this area. All three members of the evolution line can get brought in from elsewhere, or escape people who sell them, legally or not." Calem explained.

"Is that right?" Ash questioned curiouslyly, surprisingly enough earning a trill of approval and a nod from Spewpa himself. "Oh, so you're from somewhere else?" Ash said with some surprise. Spewpa nodded again, then closed his eyes solemnly for a moment, seeming to be recalling something. "Do you miss it?" Ash asked somewhat worriedly. Spewpa paused for a moment and closed his eyes again for a second, this time more scrunched up with thought, before nodding slightly. "...Well, that's okay. I'll do my best to make sure you feel at home by my side, okay?" Ash said, causing Spewpa to sternly close its eyes and nod slowly a couple of times, as if saying 'Yeah, you better.'

Santalune City was a place with much more to see than either Vaniville or Aquacorde, that much was certain. The group was even able to get a proper sit down breakfast at a restaurant, much to everyone's delight. There were also significantly more people around, usually out with Pokémon who were pets rather than battlers. But Gary, soon a bit bored with simply walking and looking around, spoke up.

"So when do we challenge the gym?" he asked somewhat impatiently, as the group walked right past it.

"You only have one Pokémon." Ash shot back.

"Maybe that's all I need." Gary responded cheekily.

"You lost to me." Ash countered flatly.

"Yeah, but that's _you._" Gary teased, earning an unimpressed frown from Ash. "Besides, there are plenty of Pokémon that I caught back in Kanto, if I felt the urge to use them again."

"Well, you do have the type advantage, but that doesn't decide everything… and Espurr is weak to Bug types, and Spewpa only just evolved, so I'd rather they train some more, personally." Ash said. Spewpa gave an irritated screech in response.

"See? He gets it." Gary said. "If we're not gonna go for the badges, then what's the point?!" he argued.

"To buy cute clothes!" Calem and Serena chimed in simultaneously.

"What's the point that isn't boring, I mean." Gary clarified, unconcerned with the half-lidded expressions of disdain he got from Calem and Serena in return.

"The point is to not suffer an embarrassing ass-kicking because you were so self-assured in your victory." Ash pointed out.

"...I liked it better when you were talking about souls and metaphysics and shit, you didn't make as much sense." Gary conceded.

"Besides, I have some things I want to try in my training. If it goes well, this could be very interesting." Ash explained.

"I wonder if I'll even challenge the gym…" Serena said aloud, with some uncertainty.

"Can't hurt. I saw you fight that Dunsparce of yours, you aren't so bad." Gary said in an almost-encouraging tone, although it also had a rather casual 'don't get too worked up' air.

"Well, I guess training is fine either way, because that way I won't be useless if anything bad happens… And if there is something that catches my interest later, it won't be way out of my league." Serena reasoned.

"I suppose I could… But I'd really prefer to catch an Azurill first...and for Aster to be strong enough to compete." Calem said.

"So it's settled then. We'll hold off on the gym for now." Ash said, causing Spewpa to produce a sigh and then a small, reluctant utterance of agreement.

* * *

When the group reached Route 22, Dahlia and Orchid took up their role teaching all who were eligible how to effectively use Calm Mind again. Apparently, Dunsparce could as well, but Serena trained with him one on one, experimenting with combining Agility and Rollout, as well as testing his power on wild Pokémon. Meanwhile, Calem and Aster went out to search for Azurill again, figuring that Aster's exceptionally good hearing would give them the advantage.

Gary went to supervise Dahlia and Orchid's training, and observe the effects of Calm Mind in detail. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing that the two smallest Pokémon around were teaching things to everyone else.

Meanwhile, Ash was curious about Spewpa's capabilities. Even though he had just evolved, and wasn't very fast or overwhelmingly powerful, he seemed to make up for it in spirit, always doing his best to go along with anything that involved being active, battling, or becoming better at battling. "I have an idea, Spewpa…" Ash suggested, as he looked at Spewpa's Pokédex stats for perhaps the sixth or seventh time that day.

"Use Protect, then change its flexibility." Spewpa looked at Ash curiously for a moment, blinking once, but obeyed nonetheless, creating a green, translucent sphere around himself. Ash immediately put his hand to the energy field, noting that it was completely repelling his hand no matter what kind of pressure he applied. Light things, like sand, dirt, and dust, were repelled well before they even actually touched the visible barrier. But as Spewpa concentrated more deeply, the sphere took on a flexible nature, being able to "stretch" and "give" as Ash interacted with it. Ash noted that it was a bit like silly putty, being very pliable when he moved his hand slowly, but less so if he made sudden movements, or attempted any fast, sudden force.

"Huh...Okay, Spewpa, use String Shot and rest for a moment, you're going to need Protect again, and I don't want it to break on us." Ash ordered, as the field vanished. Spewpa obeyed as Ash quickly thought. For whatever reason, the Protect field seemed to be thus far 'unmasterable' and somewhat 'unpredictable' no matter the Pokémon, always running the risk of breaking, dispelling, or simply failing to materialize at all if used consecutively or for too long. For some reason, using another move after Protect seemed to make it work again much faster. Perhaps it was a quirk of Pokémon biology. By momentarily switching focus to a different task, focus was 'reset', and they could perform the taxing business of Protect more easily. If Ash could study this move in detail, and gain a deeper understanding of how it worked, perhaps he could eventually defy the traditional limitations… and that'd surely make him a tougher opponent, too. After several seconds had passed, Ash gave another command.

"Okay, let's see… Try manipulating the areas it covers. It doesn't have to be a sphere, does it?"

Spewpa obliged, creating a disk that was just large enough in front of himself. Ash interacted with this one too, noticing that it seemed to more sustainable than the last, and Spewpa could hold it up for a much longer amount of time.

"So...there is a roughly inverse correlation between size and duration…Pretty predictable, so far…" Ash said to himself, as he quickly took note of it. "Try moving it around this time." Ash asked. This was possible, but it only seemed to be able to move in a roughly orbital fashion around Spewpa, always positioned in a way that it could possibly block a hypothetical incoming attack. The closer to Spewpa, the better. However, it was also possible to rotate it at an appreciable speed, separate it into multiple smaller shields, or move it very quickly with some focus and practice, which Ash reasoned was to be expected of an energy-construct type move. "Psychologically oriented around protection… Offensive purposes limited." Ash noted, although the word "offensive" gave him more ideas. A stiff, unbreakable field could lend itself to many things even without being "designed" for offense. Ash got some rocks, a bundle of sticks, and had Spewpa prepare a ball of his own silk, then placed them all in front of Spewpa. Perhaps there were more functions to be discovered after all

"Okay, now, since you can manipulate the flexibility and area, try something else. Make it very thin and rigid, with sharp edges, but don't make it weaker. Concentrate it." Ash ordered. Spewpa paused and concentrated for a moment, then did as he was told, seeming to get excited by the implications. "Now, quickly, cut the objects in front of you!" Ash said. With a cry of excitement, Spewpa cut right through every object, rapidly bringing down a bar of green energy like it was a guillotine, even leaving a line several inches deep in the ground. Ash gave a cry of surprise and exhilaration as he watched, having not expecting the theory to work so well.

"Alright! That's really awesome!" Ash cheered, as the success gave him another offense-oriented idea. Eyeing the bisected ball of silk, Ash put the next experiment into motion. "Okay, when you're ready, try to surround that silk in your Protect." Ash ordered. Spewpa simply looked up at him with a questioning expression, not exactly sure about what Ash had just said, but Ash proceeded to reassure him. "If I'm correct, you'll be able to do it. Moves are most likely strongly correlated with a Pokémon's mind and soul, as well as body. So think of it this way. That silk is part of you. You made that silk yourself, and it came from you. So think of it like a part of you, like your body, or your eyes, blood, or fur, and you'll be able to Protect it. Go ahead, Spewpa. I completely trust you."

With a determined nod, Spewpa concentrated for a full two minutes without success, not even managing to materialize the Protect field. But seeing Ash's disappointed expression, and seeing that he was about to record the attempt as a failure seemed to spur Spewpa on. Suddenly, after taking a moment to compose himself, he slowly and carefully lifted the silk within the familiar green fields and hovered it in the air for several seconds. This was more than enough to cause Ash to break out in a smile and briefly laugh loudly to himself. But even so, he didn't forget to write a series of notes on his findings before continuing his celebration.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it could work! Protect's only target is yourself, eh? Well look out everyone, because Ash Ketchum has just found a loophole!" Ash said, laughing maniacally as Spewpa cheered along with him. In fact, this was loud and animated enough to draw both Serena's and Gary's attention, as they happened to be far away enough to give Ash some solitude, but not far enough to be out of earshot.

"What's all the noise about?" Serena asked, looking at Ash and Spewpa.

"I found a loophole in Protect! Or an extension of the concept, perhaps!" Ash excitedly exclaimed.

"...What does that mean, exactly?" Gary asked.

"It means Protect no longer protects only the user." Ash stated.

"Ash, making something else stand super close doesn't count." Gary teased, but Ash wasn't having any of it.

"Spewpa, show him!" Ash ordered, as Spewpa produced a small ball of silk and then had it circle his head within a bubble of Protect, looking very proud of himself. "Now, harden the field and shoot it." Ash commanded. The ball of silk stopped in midair, and the field around it seemed to become somewhat more opaque before Spewpa sent it hurtling forward at great speed, enough to leave a miniscule hole in a tree next to Serena and Gary.

"You've seen Bullet Seed, but never Bullet Silk!" Ash cried, with another bout of purposely dramatic, maniacal laughter.

"That's amazing, Ash!" Serena gushed, but when she felt the heat in her face she pulled it back a little. "I mean, well, it's great that you're so creative…" Serena said more calmly.

"How the hell does Protect make you think of this?" Gary asked. "How do you even come to the conclusion that Spewpa's silk can be protected? Do you know how much of a risk you took?"

"If you would take the psychology behind a Pokémon's moves more seriously, it'd make more sense to you." Ash said simply. "Besides, I don't care about that anymore, because it works and it's pretty damn awesome."

"Whatever." Gary said dismissively "I'm sure however the hell your trick works, it's more scientific than just some mumbo jumbo about souls and perception." Gary mumbled.

"Aw, ish Gawwy jehwus?" Ash teased in a babyish voice.

"...Okay, I admit it, it's quite a discovery…" Gary hesitantly conceded, causing Ash to crack a jubilant smile. Serena couldn't tell if Ash liked showing Gary up or if he just liked to impress him, but she still found she didn't want to think about it too much. Even though Gary had already exposed her jealousy, she still couldn't help being a little jealous.

"Thank you. I expect that this way, Protect's risky nature can be somewhat mitigated, since Protect generally becomes more stable as its surface area decreases. But Spewpa and I still have a lot to do before this is truly a practical battle technique."

"Can you shoot Protect like a circular saw?! ...Wait, that might sound like a stupid question… Nevermind, I want to know!" Serena said with childlike excitement.

"I was actually hoping for that, but no." Ash said with a chuckle. "It's still a defensively oriented move, so it seems that it must always be a shield or barrier in relation to what it protects."

"...Maybe when Spewpa evolves, it can use Psychic to form silk into a disk, then put the Protect around the disk…" Serena suggested.

"That…" Ash thought about it for a minute, slowly nodding to himself. "That might actually work… Although I imagine it takes more time and energy than this technique…" Ash continued, before he suddenly looked as if he had another idea. "For doubles and triples, perhaps? Espurr could mold the shape and cut down dramatically on the supposed time and effort...And is it possible for a trusted ally to manipulate the Protect as well, or is that a violation of Protect's inherent nature..."

"This sounds a like the shit Naruto does to make his Rasengans." Gary joked, causing Serena to giggle despite herself.

"Or he could call it Silk Destructo Disk." she joked. Both she and Gary broke out in peals of laughter as Ash just gave them an unimpressed look.

"Hey, hey, maybe he can name his Spewpa Krillin." Gary added, causing both his and Serena's laughter to become even louder.

"What, and doom him to eventually becoming weaker than everyone else on the team?" Serena answered, causing both her and Gary to laugh even more.

"No, no, he'll just die so Espurr can go Super Kitten!" Gary answered back, now almost doubled over laughing along with Serena

"I was being serious, guys!" Ash chided. "There are so many unanswered questions!"

"We're always serious." Gary said sternly, looking Ash dead in the eye.

"We're seriously joking around." Serena added on in much the same tone, causing both of them to laugh even more. Ash just sighed deeply, at least being glad that they could get along better than they did at first.

Despite his minor annoyance, Ash continued to speak with Serena and Gary about a variety of topics, usually related to Pokémon. They had to take care not to get too deep to get Serena lost, but she kept up regardless. After a while, the group heard Calem approaching, now with an Azurill in his arms.

"Sorry that took so long. I ran into four, really, but I had to scan them to see which one had Huge Power. That's probably the best part, as far as battling with one." Calem explained. "I'll call him Lotus!" Calem announced happily,looking down at the small mouse Pokémon in his arms.

"You missed it, Ash is gonna train his Spewpa to be Krillin!" Gary exclaimed.

"...Huh?" Calem asked, not exactly getting what was going on.

"Don't listen to him! It's a legitimate innovation!" Ash burst out with utmost seriousness, causing both Gary and Serena to laugh.

"Oh, so you two can get along after all?" Calem said to Gary and Serena, with a small, teasing smile.

"I-I'm a perfectly agreeable person! I just have weaknesses at times..." Serena snappily replied.

"Yes, of course I'd know that." Calem said with a gentle smile, before continuing. "Well, although I'm sure that whatever Ash did is very interesting, I just wanted to let you all know that I saw a Riolu foraging out in a relatively open place. They're awfully rare, and plenty expensive, so I just figured I'd tell you." Calem said, pointing off in the general direction they were referring to.

"Smell ya later!" Gary immediately declared with a burst of childish excitement, quickly calling to his Amaura as he ran off towards the Riolu area.

Largely out of curiosity, the others followed. It was no exceptional feat to realize that Amaura was extremely weak to fighting type attacks, after all.

When they got there, Amaura was already preparing her first attack on the small blue aura canid, who was now tense and alert, looking straight at her. A blast of weak electricity started things off, quickly paralyzing Riolu before it could react. With a snarl of fury, the Riolu bolted forward with incredible speed, but its valiant effort didn't do very much against Amaura's tough body.

"Amaura, Powder Snow!" Gary instructed. With a great blast of ice cold air, Riolu was sent tumbling backwards. Paralyzed and shivering, it still rose to its feet, barking indignantly as it clumsily rushed forward. "Now, Tackle!" Gary cried, as Amaura rushed forwards and a frigid, light blue aura exploded outwards from her body, making her body and the surrounding air so cold that she left frosty footprints as she ran. Her larger, stronger, sturdier body sent the much smaller and lighter Riolu flying, leaving it perfectly vulnerable to a Poké Ball from Gary, which it was hardly able to resist at all before the satisfying 'ping' could be heard.

Gary did not say a word, only walking over and picking the Pokeball up before thrusting it high into the air with a victorious grin.

"So that was the Refrigerate ability!" Calem exclaimed. "How interesting!"

"So Amaura learns Tackle after all?" Ash questioned, not remembering that from what he knew about Amaura.

"What kind of Pokémon that isn't as light as air CAN'T learn Tackle?" Gary shot back, causing Ash to blush a little.

"I guess that does make sense…" Ash muttered with mild shame, briefly clearing his throat.

* * *

Things quickly settled back down after that. Gary immediately took great interest in his new Riolu, while Calem practiced things with Lotus. Upon finally seeing Ash's new technique, Calem took great interest in it, and asked him to teach Lotus how to use Protect so it could be combined with Water Gun. Spewpa immediately seemed less than impressed, not being much for the "teacher" role, but eventually relented after the two teens spent a good amount of time persuading and buttering him up.

Espur was the first one to master Calm Mind, and set out to make sure everyone knew it, teasing and pranking other Pokémon with newly improved displays of psychic power. However, this quickly caught Ash's attention, and Espurr was promptly pulled away from his antics so Ash could study what he could do now as well.

"Okay...this should be pretty interesting too… From what I know so far, Calm Mind sharpens the focus of the mind, and heightens the flow of energies responsible for absorbing and negating special attacks. That's how it increases both special attack and special attack, but at the same time… Maybe we can get a little more creative here." Ash reasoned. Espurr cocked his head to the side, although a quick glimpse at what Ash was thinking seemed to make him rather nervous. It also explained why they were next to a large, sturdy tree, and a considerable distance away from the others. "Okay, Espurr, Calm Mind." Ash instructed.

Espurr reluctantly did as he was told, briefly closing his eyes. As he did so, his fur moved as if it were blown by an invisible wind, and his body took on a lilac outline for a moment. When it was over, his stare seemed to be more intense than ever, and he restlessly surveyed his surroundings.

"Okay, now, raise your ears, slowly and calmly… Try to control your power as much as you can." Ash instructed in a very steady voice, notepad at the ready. As Espurr obeyed, Ash could only hope his hypothesis was correct… The process went quite well until the last couple of seconds, at which point Espurr flinched and his entire body shuddered. He quickly clamped his ears shut, and Ash quickly ran, but the resulting blast was still enough to blow Espurr backwards a couple of feet and stir up a violent wind. Ash immediately came out from behind the tree to pet the small cat reassuringly. "If we want this to work, you can't be afraid of what will happen. Just try your best. Try your best and be brave, okay?" Ash said in a gentle voice, prompting a nod from Espurr. With another Calm Mind, Espurr tried again. This time, the psychic organs became fully exposed, and it remained completely safe.

"Awesome!" Ash cried, as he quickly scrawled both information and speculation in his notepad. "Now, blast the tree as precisely as you can!" Ash requested. With a brief pause and dilation, then contraction of the pupils, Espurr unleashed a wicked blast of raw telekinetic might on the large, sturdy tree, producing a tremendous cracking, breaking noise and blasting chunks of bark and wood everywhere. Soil and leaves flew about as the tree rustled violently, and Ash couldn't help but instinctively duck and cover. Even so, his hat was blown off. When all was said and done, the tree had a huge, ugly, and incredibly gnarled gash in it, and the ground between Espurr and the tree was now scarred with a unique, somewhat erratic rut, a few inches wide and several inches deep. Espurr stood there panting slightly, but unlike previous usages of his psychic organs, he hadn't blasted himself backwards or slightly traumatized himself. Ash was utterly stunned. That was the raw power a single Espurr held, not even a week after he'd first obtained it? No wonder the poor guy was uneasy about his own power.

"Okay Espurr, that's… Absolutely incredible, as far as raw power." Ash told the small kitten as he found his hat and put it back on his head in a bit of a daze. He now had a bit of a headache and he was seeing little stars, but he quickly shook his head and continued to speak. "But for now, let's focus more on the finesse and control before we obliterate this whole area, alright?" Ash said lightheartedly.

"Are you alright, Ash?!" Serena shouted from a distance as she, Gary, and Calem came running over, not entirely aware of what had just happened.

"Fine, fine. Just a little...researching, don't get too worked up."

"What the hell do you mean, that tree is probably gonna die! And what the hell happened to the ground?!" Gary frantically shouted

"A Kamehameha?" Ash jokingly suggested, but neither Gary or Serena looked too amused. "Okay, really, this is more of a good thing actually. I was seeing if Espurr could gain extra control over his psychic organs with Calm Mind. As you can see, we basically succeeded." Ash explained with a dismissive grin.

"And what if it hadn't gone so 'well'?" Gary asked.

"It's not like I'd be hurt. Well, at least not for long." Ash reasoned.

"Just be careful!" both Gary and Serena cried simultaneously, before looking at each other with brief irritation, then looking away.

"How adorable~" Calem cooed, earning a glare from both Gary and Serena. Calem only chuckled nervously in response.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, honestly." Ash apologized "I'll be more careful." he said, started to feel flustered as it dawned on him that they just cared about him.

For the rest of that day's training, Ash only focused on Espurr's telekinetic finesse through a variety of much safer games. For the next four days, the group combined training with an appropriate amount of relaxation and sight-seeing. By the end of day two, the knowledge of Calm Mind had successfully been shared with every Pokémon eligible to learn it. However, it took just about as long for Lotus to learn Protect, and gaining reliable control over the "bullet" technique became a joint effort between he and Spewpa. Thanks to the small area being covered, duration was almost never the problem. Instead, the problems ranged from speed, to accuracy, to increased problems handling large amounts of ammunition. One usage of Protect could simultaneously form many individual bullets, but controlling them accurately and sensibly was something else. Perhaps the most promising hypothetical application was the ability to control them mid-flight. However, this was often difficult and rather impractical in the midst of active combat, so they simply became about as straightforward as real bullets: Aim and shoot. With at least that much use already, Ash figured he could steadily build up their versatility as he went.

Surprisingly, Espurr managed to learn Protect without being ordered to, through imitation and eavesdropping. Ash was pleasantly surprised, and Espurr was beginning to make himself known as a surprisingly fast learner. Only hours after learning Protect, Espurr was able to modify the concept to learn Light Screen. After this event, Ash and Gary developed a suspicion that possessing knowledge of one energy-shield type move would allow much easier understanding of the rest; if possible for that particular Pokémon, and it would only required a minor shift in perception and application to achieve. Ash and Espurr managed to prove the theory correct, much to their mutual joy, as Espurr managed to derive both Reflect and Safeguard from his pre-existing knowledge of Light Screen and Protect.

"Maybe I was wrong about Super Kitten." Gary said in a tone of fake regret, as Ash petted Espurr on the head and praised him for a job well done. "From now on, we'll call him Orihime!" Gary added on, as he began to giggle at his own joke.

"This is very serious business, Gary!" Ash cried, before smiling coyly and continuing. "Besides, you can't be Orihime without big boobs."

Neither Ash or Gary couldn't resist breaking into a fit of giggles once Ash had said it, but Espurr just looked confused.

Ash noted that applying Calm Mind boosts during training appeared to produce consistently better results, allowing Pokémon to retain greater concentration and pick up vital details they would miss otherwise. That single move seemed to streamline the process greatly. So greatly, in fact, it made Ash rather curious. What was it really like to think as a Pokémon, anyway? What did it feel like to use those moves? What did it feel like to have that power? Perhaps the answer could help him on his path as a Trainer, too. So, on the night of their third full day in/near Santalune City, Ash had an idea. He gave Espurr a pencil and notepad, and asked him to draw. After his first few scribbles, Espurr seemed to pick up on the idea, and began to tentatively drawn crude, but identifiable things, holding the pencil steadily in both of his small paws. They would often be the Pokémon and humans that made up their group, or trees and houses.

After an hour or so, Ash realized he may have started something unexpected. Espurr seemed to be utterly consumed by the introduction of pencil and paper. He stayed up well into the night scribbling, sketching, and doodling, somehow entranced by how vastly varied such a simple act could be. In any case, Ash was definitely glad he had decided to purposely overpack notebooks and notepads now. The next day, Espurr still didn't give up drawing, and even seemed to be telling the other Pokémon about it. By now, he was using his telekinesis to manipulate the pencil rather than his small, clumsy paws. While it didn't make him the next Picasso, overcoming the limitations of his paws did allow him to make much more detailed and accurate pictures, still rather crude but now much easier to identify and follow.

"Oh look, Orihime is an artist now!" Gary said, eliciting a half-chuckle half-groan from Ash. "What's the whole purpose of this, anyway?" Gary asked. "Some convoluted theory about how getting better at drawing will give him better concentration in battle? Hoping he'll miraculously learn Sketch?"

"While that first thing is actually kind of an interesting idea for a later time, this is so we can eventually communicate." Ash explained "There are questions I'd like to ask him, with answers that are too complex for gestures."

"...You're weird." Gary replied simply, receiving a scowl from Ash. "What is it, anyway? Are you gonna ask him his favorite kitty chow?" Gary teased.

"I want to ask him how it works. What it feels like to be psychic, to move objects, to look into people's thoughts. It's frustrating, only half understanding it from the outside." Ash explained.

"Oh...well that's...a pretty good question, actually." Gary said, seemingly unsure of what else to say. "...You're really serious about all of this, huh?" Gary asked, after a moment's pause.

"What do you mean? I'm just curious, is all." Ash said.

"I can tell you're really enjoying yourself though. You always hid it so well back at Oak's lab, and you always kept yourself away with all your rational thinking, but I can just see it in your eyes now. You really do cherish this journey, huh? Even if it is with an awkward guy like me."

"Don't say that about yourself, you're not awkward. Surprising and a little rude and overwhelming sometimes, yeah, but not awkward. No matter what the situation is exactly, I'm not going to pretend there isn't a bond we share. ...I already tried that, and you came all the way here just to show me it doesn't have to be that way, so why try again after you went to all the effort?" Ash asked rhetorically, with a friendly, gentle tone.

"Ha, yeah, I guess you're right. But I have to say...as someone who's already done this journey thing, you're doing a good job. I was such a kid back then, such a fool… I took my talent and ran off into my own ego with it."

"We all learn, so don't worry about it, alright?" Ash said, as he looked Gary in the eye and smiled softly. Something about that expression paralyzed Gary. It was like Ash had used some bizzare, marshmallow-soft Glare. Gary couldn't help but take in his warm brown eyes, more sweet and inviting than a box of chocolate… Soft lips, not too thick or thin… Endlessly unruly locks of raven hair, which Gary remembered the comforting, fluffy texture of all too well. Them there was the musculature of his exposed arms, combined with how his chest was somewhat broad, but not too broad. Yet his body was so much smaller than Gary's, just the right size to nuzzle right between Gary's legs so Gary could feel the warmth of Ash's back against his chest ...or perhaps just the right size to fit enticingly on a bed, just beneath Gary, and- "Gary, are you...staring?" Ash asked with mild confusion, causing Gary to immediately snap back to reality

"No. Not at all! What makes you say that?!" Gary responded.

"Because you totally were, since you just lied horribly." Ash pointed out.

"A-and so what if I was? I'm human, aren't I?!" Gary grumbled defensively, causing Ash to smirk.

"I didn't say I was angry." Ash pointed out softly, his face reddening somewhat.

"O-oh…" Gary said more timidly than he meant to, with a blush of his own, as he unconsciously began to play with his fingers behind his back. He needed to figure a way out of this situation, and fast. Looking around with more than a little awkwardness, he managed to spot Calem, who he immediately called out to. "Hey, Calem! How's your living water balloon doing?" Gary brashly shouted.

"That's impossible to determine, since I have an _Azurill, _not a _water balloon. _But I assume that's what you meant, no?" Calem answered back, entirely used to the joke, since it was nothing new.

Meanwhile, Ash was left standing there, still thinking over every last second of that brief exchange.

He really need to do a better job at not thinking about this sort of thing.

* * *

**I don't even actually watch Dragonball Z, Naruto, or Bleach. **


	6. Voilà, Viola

**Ch 6: Voilà, Viola**

**It's finally time for the first badge! Everyone already knows who Viola is, and who every Gym Leader is, for that matter. It isn't hard to find Gyms, either. Because the fact that people who are actively interested in Pokémon training so often have lacking awareness of things so closely related to one of the most famous and common trainer goals is really stupid.**

**Also, since you can already tell this isn't a straight up anime story and probably won't be surprised, TMs are a thing.**

* * *

Finally feeling they were ready, the group headed to Santalune Gym on their sixth day in town, a partly cloudy but still quite pleasant morning. They had practiced many techniques, and their Pokémon had shared and mastered a variety of moves, so they were feeling confident. It wasn't like Santalune Gym was easy to miss, either. Signs and maps located all over the city would lead even the most simple-minded person directly to it. Their hearts swelled with anticipation as they approached the large building, mostly forest green, with tall, elongated windows and a large gym symbol painted above the door. Spewpa was on Ash's shoulder and Espurr was by his side, while Dahlia and Orchid perched on Calem's shoulders, and Houndour walked by Serena's side.

The group ascended the short staircase leading to the door and went inside, immediately being welcomed by a large battlefield surrounded by an impressive array of bushes, trees, flowers, and other plants. Orchid gave a high-pitched cry of utter delight, immediately separating from Calem to fly excitedly among the beauty of the plants.

A couple of people roamed about the surrounding plants, appearing to be employed as gardeners. However, one young woman with distinctive sandy blonde hair, a white tanktop, and dark teal pants that came just past her knees stood out. The group's eyes all lit up with recognition, and they quickly made their way towards her. "Miss Viola!" Ash called out as they neared the young woman, causing her to look up with mild surprise.

"Oh, goodness, are you all challengers today?" Viola asked with surprise. "It really was smart of you to come early, it's always so awkward when groups of people decide to do this at the last moment…" Viola said with a chuckle. "That being said, I can take you all on today, no problem. ...Wait, how many of you are actually planning to battle?"

"Everyone except me, ma'am." Serena answered quickly, while the others nodded in agreement.

"Delightful!" Viola beamed. "I'm getting excited already! How many badges from this region do each of you have?" Viola asked.

"None." everyone else answered.

"Alright then, I'll use just two Pokémon . Who's going first?!" she asked almost hungrily, as she looked the group over with determined, energetic eyes. Ash could almost swear he saw them linger and soften when she was looking at Gary, but it could've just been his imagination.

"I will!" Gary exclaimed with fire in his eyes. "I can't wait to see what a Kalos Gym Leader is like."

"Oh!" Viola exclaimed, her confident smile seeming to be tinged with a trace of nervousness. "Well, show me what you ho-! ...I mean got!" she corrected herself with a nervous grin, as Ash sighed knowingly. Gary was attractive, what else was new... "What's your name, by the way?" she asked without turning around, as she made her way to a small door in the partition around the arena.

"Gary Oak." Gary answered simply.

"Oh… Are you Professor Oak's grandson?!" Viola gushed, turning around in surprise.

"Sure am!" Gary replied.

"Oh, wow, so you're practically a celebrity!" Viola exclaimed, her smile growing ever brighter as she backtracked to walk beside Gary, "Well, don't look down on a lowly little photographer like me~ Or I'll have to punish you." she teased with a wink, lightly bumping Gary's arm. "In battle, that is." Ash looked on with a half lidded gaze of repressed irritation, while Calem and Serena just giggled.

Gary and Viola took their positions on the battle arena, their faces loaded with determination.

"Okay! Surskit, here we go!" Viola cried, as she tossed a Pokeball into the air, which opened to reveal a small, round, sky blue Pokémon with four long, spindly legs and a yellow cap with a single antennae.

"Amaura!" Gary called out, as the small icy sauropod materialized on the battlefield.

"Oh, wow, even your Pokémon is super cool!" Viola shouted. "...Okay, that was bad… Let's just get right to it! Surskit, Scald!" Surskit immediately heeded the command, blasting a deluge of piping hot water at the dinosaur Pokémon .

"Light Screen!" Gary shouted. Amaura's body became coated in an iridescent coating of energy just before the attack hit, allowing her to stand up to the attack with surprising ease.

"I see how it is! Surskit, Agility!" A pronounced shiver ran up Surskit's entire body as it's eyes glowed momentarily, allowing for a sudden burst into obscene speed.

"Amaura, Calm Mind!" Gary called urgently, as he found he could barely even keep his eye on the speeding Surskit. Amaura obeyed, her body glowing a light purple as Surskit sped around her.

"Now, jump in and Scald!" Viola cried, as Surskit leapt up into the air and prepared another Scald.

"Amaura, make cold, raise screen!" Gary cried frantically. Amaura's Light Screen came away from her skin and shifted into a large overhead dome, which caused Scald to disperse and slow down as Amaura unleashed a torrent of bitterly cold air from her crystals, causing the water to very quickly cool and evaporate in a blast of thick vapor.

"No way!" Viola gasped.

"I knew internet videos would help some day." Gary chuckled. "Now, Rock Throw!" Gary said, as Amaura's crystals quickly broke off tiny pieces of themselves, which very rapidly grew into a barrage of large stones and went flying at Surskit, who was now somewhat disoriented by the unexpected blast of vapor. They scored a direct hit, sending the little pond skater flying several feet.

"No problem! Surskit, Signal Beam!" Viola commanded. A ball of shining pink light formed at the tip of Surskit's antenna before being fired as a powerful beam, cutting through the fog and hitting Amaura, only somewhat slowed by Light Screen.

"Mirror Coat!" Gary ordered. Amaura's sturdy body glowed brightly with an odd coating, and was able to stand up to the weakened Signal Beam, sending it back with ferocious power. Surskit's eyes widened and it let out a panicked screech as the blast of energy hit it dead on, sending it flying into the arena's walls.

"Surskit!" Viola cried out with worry, as Surskit struggled to its feet, not looking as slick and speedy as it used to. "Sticky Web!" she ordered. Surskit blasted a barrage of gooey nets around Gary's side of the battlefield, leaving thick, gooey webs of silk everywhere.

"Amaura, one last time! Rock Throw!" Amaura assaulted Surskit with another flurry of rocks, but surprisingly enough, it wasn't as weak as it appeared.

"Protect!" Viola ordered. Surskit's body became surrounded by a bright green dome shield, which the rocks bounced off of uselessly.

"Signal Beam!"

"Ice wall!" Gary demanded. With copious moisture in the area, Amaura was quite easily able to make a thick wall that successfully stood up to the pink beam attack, even as her Light Screen faded away.

"Jeez, you don't give up at all, huh? Well then, aerial Scald!" Viola commanded, as Surskit jumped up and fired off a powerful jet of boiling hot water. However, with the hits sustained and energy expended, it wasn't as fast or precise as before.

"Light Screen, thick!" Amaura produced a Light Screen that was short lived but much stronger than usual, totally blocking the deluge of boiling water much like Protect would.

"Scald, again!" Surskit tensed up and fired off another desperate blast of hot water, but Gary was alert.

"Powder Snow!" Amaura's attack benefitted greatly from getting even more external water to draw off of, becoming an icy blast too wide and fast for the weakened Surskit, whose Scald was dispersed and overwhelmed by the strong, incredibly frigid winds. Surskit was pushed against the wall again, and it froze fast to the side. Now completely immobile, all it could do was lose consciousness. The other three group members cheered for the first time after watching in tense relative quiet, knowing there were mutually exploitable weaknesses.

"What a defensive show! That Amaura's a stalwart battler, I'll give you that!" Viola complimented. "But you did great too, Surskit. Just sit back and relax, I can still turn this around!" Viola reassured the small Bug-type as she returned it. "Vivillon! Let's start off with Psychic!" Viola shouted, as she threw another Pokeball into the air, revealing a large butterfly Pokémon with brilliant pink wings, rimmed with a band of black and a band of darker pink, then patterned with stripes of light pink, along with squares of dark pink and light blue on the upper wings. Spewpa seemed very excited to see it, making loud vocalizations of happiness and familiarity with it's evolved form.

Heeding the command, the butterfly Pokémon carried it out as soon as it materialized, telekinetically grasping Amaura and sending her careening into a Sticky Web trap.

"Amaura!" Gary cried. "Powder Snow!" he ordered, but Vivillon was too fast. Skillfully and neatly, it flew in a graceful spiral around the stream of icy air, now much closer to the trapped Amaura.

"Solarbeam." Viola ordered with grave calm. Part of Gary's mind (and Ash's as well) was amazed by how quickly Vivillon had learned to charge such an attack, but part of him was paralyzed with dread as it came down right on top of Amaura, knocking her unconscious.

"Amaura, you did fine! We're almost there now because of you! Go, Riolu!" Gary yelled, as he returned Amaura and Riolu took his stand.

"How unfortunate." Viola said simply. "Well now, you'd better surprise me, because right now it isn't looking so good for you!"

"So you say. Riolu, Foresight!" Gary cried. Riolu's eyes flashed blue and it's body sent out a pulse of blue energy, which lingered on Vivillon's body for a while before disappearing.

"That's all?!" Viola said. "That's a bit disappointing, coming from someone like you!"

"I don't get it either…" Serena murmured from the sidelines.

"There has to be something more to it…" Calem said with some confusion.

"There's a reason for everything Gary does." Ash said patiently, as he watched with rapt attention.

"Mhmm, that's all." Gary said simply. "But you may not be seeing the whole picture." Gary cheekily continued.

"Me, not seeing the whole picture?! Vivillon, Psychic!" Viola cried, somewhat offended. The butterfly Pokémon 's eyes glowed as it looked at Riolu, only for it to lose sight of him within the next moment.

"Riolu, mess her up!" Gary said with a devious grin. The little blue canid obliged, racing around the battlefield with immense speed.

"Vivillon, Gust!" Viola shouted. However, the blast of wind was completely useless when Riolu wasn't even there anymore. "Again!" Once again, a complete miss. The crafty canid just did a powerful leap forward and ended up behind Vivillon, getting away almost before the attack could really happen at all. "Again!" Even the third time was to no avail, Riolu easily dodging with no difficulty. "Hold it in place!" she ordered, but once again, Riolu slipped out of the way of Psychic before it could even lock on, entirely unharmed.

"...Riolu is that good at dodging?!" Serena asked aloud, her eyes wide. As she spoke, Riolu dodged yet another attack, this time without having to even look at what it was dodging.

"Normally, no. But what Gary has done is making sense now." Ash said. "That Foresight was the opposite of pointless."

"Beautiful! This is how battles should be!" Calem cried, as they watched Riolu gracefully avoid every attack thrown at him.

"Quick Attack, avoid the front!" Riolu jumped up into the air from behind with amazing speed and power, completely outmaneuvering Vivillon's attempts to actually face him head on. Before Vivillon could even react, Riolu had delivered a powerful kick to the back of its head and come back to the ground. "Again!" Riolu came in from the side now, delivering an incredibly fast punch to Vivillon's left wings and body. "More!" Riolu leapt in again from right and behind, completely blindsiding Vivillon with a vicious kick and a furious bite.

"What in the world… Hmph! Vivillon, Sleep Powder! Wide area!" Viola cried, as Vivillon flew up higher and let steady waves of green, sparkling powder wash over the field.

"Riolu, jump and avoid!" Gary cried. Riolu jumped towards Vivillon again, but this time was different.

"Aha!" Viola cried. "Vivillon, deflect with Gust!" In midair, the fierce gale of wind could easily catch Riolu, who lost all momentum and went tumbling back into the arena. Although the Sleep Powder in the area was blown away as well, Riolu was now stuck on a Sticky Web that Surskit had left.

"Of fucking course." Gary cursed to himself.

"Vivillon, Psychic!" Viola ordered with an air of finality. Vivillon hovered above Riolu with bright, glowing eyes, apparently signaling the end…

"Riolu, Endure!" Gary cried. Riolu gritted his teeth as the Psychic mercilessly assaulted his mind and body.

"Oh, what's this? Prolonging the inevitable? My, Gary, you really are a stubborn man!"

"Whatever you say. Riolu, break free! Quick Attack!" Gary yelled, as Riolu suddenly began to struggle powerfully against the Sticky Web with surprising bursts of speed and power, only being egged on by the pain of Psychic. Surprisingly enough, he succeeded, panting heavily but back on his feet, still with loose strands and globs hanging off of him. "Grab the web!" Riolu took a large, tattered strip of it in one of his paws, much to Viola's surprise.

"What determination! I'll have to keep this image in my heart forever! Vivillon, don't let him-" Riolu moved in that instant, still incredibly fast thanks to the effects of Quick Attack.

"Hitch a ride." Gary said with a proud smile, as Riolu did a series of flips forward and immediately leapt up onto Vivillon from behind with another almighty Quick Attack leap. Continuing to utilize the speed of Quick Attack, Riolu took the webbing in his paw and wrapped it around Vivillon's head, covering the eyes as Vivillon fluttered about wildly, crying out desperately as it tried to dislodge the stubborn Pokémon .

"Vivillon!" Viola cried out, but there wasn't much she could do now. With the sheer rage and adrenaline of nearly being defeated, Riolu furiously beat against Vivillon's backside with hard, rhythmic strikes, sending it crashing to the ground.

"Wreck it." Gary ordered, as Riolu then took the Sticky Web still attached to his paw, let out a loud growl, and then repeatedly slammed Vivillon against the ground, using the flexible, sticky silk to his advantage. Finally, with a leap onto the dazed Vivillon and a merciless kick to the face, Vivillon was unconscious.

"Hell yeah!" Gary cried, as Riolu happily leapt into his arms, panting heavily.

"Damn." Serena gasped quietly, while Spewpa looked rather shocked and disappointed, calling out in a questioning manner.

"I guess that's someone who already has eight badges after all…" Calem thought aloud in amazement.

"Next!" Viola shouted to the sidelines, as she healed Vivillon and Surskit with a couple of medicine bottles.

"Ash, did you want to go?" Calem offered in a somewhat strained voice, already looking like they were ready to leap straight out of their seat. Ash could only chuckle, it was obvious Calem didn't really want him to say yes.

"Go ahead, it gives me more time to learn." Ash said kindly.

"Alright!" Calem cried, while already dashing onto the battlefield.

"Calem Xavier here! I do hope this will be a wonderful battle!"

"...You're an Xavier?!" Viola screamed in astonishment. "They're completely loaded! Shouldn't you be at some fancy Trainer school?!"

"This is faaarrrr superior to that. In addition, my family was quite overprotective. But I expect this will be an enjoyable battle, no?"

* * *

"You bet! Surskit, let's take it from the top!" Viola said exuberantly. Surskit gracefully slid into position as Calem brought out Aster, the pink little fairy clenching her little fists excitedly.

"Surskit, let's get right into it! Ice Field!" Viola cried.

"Hm?" Calem questioned, as Surskit fired a blast of icy energy into the air, which spread out and arched down the the ground, completely covering it in a smooth layer of ice, although this made last battle's Sticky Webs frozen and useless. "Incredible! A strategy like this, saved just for me! I'm flattered!" Calem cried, as Surskit bolted around the field with incredible grace.

"That Surskit is good." Gary observed, as he took his place next to Ash and Serena.

"Forget that! How'd you do the thing where it was like Riolu was right out of the Matrix?!" Serena demanded to know.

"Well, that's not too much of a stretch. A Riolu can sense the aura of living things, including their emotions, movements, and all that crap. So I figured Foresight, which dispels illusions and allows a Pokémon a much clearer impression of the opponent, would really compound those abilities. As it turns out, I was right. Foresight made Riolu so keen that it could detect Vivillon's movements and intentions before they even happened."

"That's some good thinking." Ash sincerely noted, as Gary just nodded proudly and went back to watching the battle.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Calem! Surskit, Scald!" Viola demanded. Surskit fired off a deluge of hot water, blasting Aster directly in the face. She let out a piercing scream, and came out with steam rising off of her body, but managed to smile afterwards anyway. "No way, that should be a burn!"

"It might be. But Magic Guard is a beautiful thing, no? Now, Aster darling, float!" Aster giggled and raised herself a couple of feet into the air, steadily flying well above the vast majority of ice that hadn't been melted by Scald. "Use your voice, too!" Calem ordered, as Aster let out a loud cry, buffeting Surskit with waves of pink energy.

"_I can't fucking believe I forgot Clefairy can float._" Viola muttered to herself. "Surskit, Ice Beam!"

"Light Screen, strong!" The Ice Beam was deflected by the energy barrier with ease, as Viola frowned.

"Surskit, get in close and Ice Beam harder!"

"Catch and Sing!" Calem ordered. With a strong Psychic, Surskit was hoisted into the air before it could fire off an Ice Beam, while Aster began to sing. Surskit's antenna and legs steadily went limp, only for Aster to then throw it up and send it plummeting back to the ground with brutal speed.

"Go for broke, Calem!" Serena cheered, causing Calem to beam with joy. However, the sudden jolt woke Surskit up just enough to blast Aster with a powerful Ice Beam, knocking her out of the air and leaving her unconscious.

"That was beautiful, darling." Calem said, returning her. "Now, Lotus!" Calem cried, unleashing the bouncy-tailed mouse in a burst of brilliant light.

"Surskit, another Ice Beam!" Viola commanded.

"Lotus, Protect then shoot!" Viola looked somewhat confused as the green field of energy came up and blocked the Ice Beam, and then coated the outsides of a myriad of small bubbles, forming them into more piercing, oblong shapes. Still a bit drowsy, Surskit could only screech in pain as they exploded outward like a shotgun blast. Only a few grazed her small body, but they were so fast, along with popping as the Protect shells dispelled, that Surskit was knocked unconscious.

"Once again, Surskit, take a long rest. And Vivillon, finish this with Solarbeam!" Viola commanded, as she simultaneously returned Surskit and sent out Vivillon.

"Move!" Calem urged. Unfortunately, Lotus's precision was fouled by the ice, and he only bounced out of the way in time for the incredibly powerful attack to sweep swiftly to the left and hit him anyway, sending him skidding and sliding across the ground. He weakly tried to get up, but failed, and was left unconscious. "Wonderful, Lotus. You did your best." Calem said, as he returned the small blue mouse. "Now, Miss Viola, you've bested my two newest teammates, but you aren't getting any further! Orchid, let's finish it!" Calem called. Orchid popped out from behind one of the gym's trees and rushed eagerly to Calem's side.

"Vivillon, Psychic!"

"Cancel it!" Both Pokémon 's eyes glowed with psychic energy at the same time, causing the area to get somewhat warmer and for the airspace between them to distort and waver. Finally, Vivillon gave a gasp of pain and exhaustion as Floette's mind prevailed and in turn grasped the butterfly Pokémon , sending it crashing to the ground with amazing force. "Now, in the name of the moon, punish them!" Calem ordered. With a mischievous, uncharacteristically aggressive look, Orchid lowered her flower and charged a pinkish-white orb of energy in front of it, which then thrusted outwards as a mighty beam of energy. It smashed into Vivillon dead on with blistering speed, sending bits of the ground and chunks of ice flying into the air. When it was over, Vivillon was still laying there, now out cold.

"...Damn…" Viola gasped, too stunned to do anything but wordlessly recall Vivillon.

"...She couldn't even touch Orchid…" Ash said in amazement, as Serena cheered jubilantly and Spewpa made a odd, hissing screech of displeasure.

"Calem has had Orchid and Dahlia since before I even lived there! Apparently, Orchid was back at home during the Diggersby attack. Calem is extremely close to those two." Serena explained.

"So that's the power a bond can bring out…" Gary said to himself, as Calem bowed and walked back to the sidelines, with Orchid following closely.

"I guess it's my turn now…" Ash said, as Spewpa gave a cry of delight.

"Hey, you! What's your name?" Viola shouted to Ash, just as he stood up.

"Huh? Ash Ketchum." Ash answered simply.

"Listen, Ash! I've already been smashed by both Oak's grandson and a real live Xavier, so I'm willing to bet you're a cut above what I'm throwing at you too!" Viola shouted as she healed her Pokémon .

"I dunno, I'd say those two have various advantages over me…" Ash said.

"Well, I don't know for sure how true that is, but I'll tell you what. If I throw in a 3rd Pokémon , and you win, I'll make it worth your while!" she said with a daring look in her eyes, as she produced a small disks from one of her pockets. "Not only the Infestation TM that everyone else gets, but a Pokémon Egg I have in the back! I honestly have a lot of Pokémon , and I'm not so sure I'd be able to provide all the attention the baby will need, so it'd be nice if someone else took it. Plus, if you win, that's good evidence you'll be able to handle it yourself."

"...Hmm...Okay, I don't see why I can't try!" Ash agreed cheerfully. "Honestly, I'm not certain about this, but I won't be disappointed if I lose." Ash admitted, as he made his way to the challenger's side of the battlefield.

* * *

"Alright, let's start you right off with something new! Go, Heracross!" Viola called with a confident smirk. A large, blue, bipedal beetle Pokémon materialized in front of her, with yellow eyes, clawed hands, a thick exoskeleton, and a long, curved horn jutting upwards.

"Hm… Okay, Espurr, we're mutually disadvantaged. But give it your best, alright?" Ash said, bending down to be on a closer level to Espurr's eyes. Espurr nodded and took a battle stance.

"Alright! Heracross, Pin Missile!" Heracross opened its mouth, sending out a barrage of thick white energy spikes, each surrounded with streaky green energy.

"Espurr, Protect!" Espurr created a solid dome of green energy, but Viola had other ideas.

"Feint!" Viola cried out almost exactly as Ash gave the command, with a wide grin.

"_She knew this would happen!" _Ash thought to himself in alarm, as Heracross's glowing horn easily destroyed Protect, sparking on contact with it, then sent Espurr flying.

"Now, land it for real this time!" Heracross sent forth another barrage, but Ash wasn't out of ideas yet.

"Catch!" A bright glow emanated from Espurr's eyes as he quickly got up, suspending the attack in midair.

"Megahorn!" Heracross's horn took on a harsh white glow as it immediately charged Espurr.

"Block with them, then dodge!" Espurr quickly turned the Pin Missile around and formed it into a tight barrier, which pushed against Heracross's horn but predictably only slowed the beetle's mighty charge enough to allow Espurr to jump out of the way, just as he abruptly stopped using Psychic and allowed the large, heavy beetle to stumble through. "Calm Mind!" Ash quickly added on, taking advantage of the brief lapse in Heracross's maneuverability. Espurr's brief meditation finished just as Heracross turned towards it again, but now he could perceive Heracross's steps amidst the excitement of battle, and quickly hopped out of the way.

"Aerial Ace, Heracross!" Heracross was surrounded by streaky white light as it slammed into and tossed Espurr with speed to ludicrous to avoid, sending him flying high into the air due to his light weight… But even that had advantages, Ash realized.

"Stop yourself!" Ash ordered, as Espurr's eyes opened and began to glow in midair, suspending him before he could complete the fall.

"Heracross, follow!" Viola cried. The large beetle jumped up and opened its wings, but Ash was prepared.

"Drop, then catch!" Ash commanded just as Heracross came somewhat close. Espurr immediately stopped levitating, slipping beneath Heracross's arms and horns and landing as the beetle continued to fly forwards. Then, as it turned to get Espurr, it was trapped in midair by Espurr's Psychic. "No mercy." Ash said simply. Espurr nodded without turning around and lifted his ears, both his eyes and psychic organs glowing harshly. Heracross felt a brief, oppressive sensation of heat as the air between the two Pokémon shimmered, before Heracross was blasted with such force it hit one of the gym's front windows with a resounding crash. It was unconscious on impact, with wing cases still spread.

"Damn." Viola mumbled to herself. "Someone's gonna have to go take care of that!" she cried out, prompting a worker to run to her side and take Heracross's Pokeball. Ash couldn't help but giggle at the sight of it. "You think this is funny, huh?!" Viola indignantly yelled out.

"Kinda." Ash said in a small voice, before laughing even more, the fun he was having only magnifying the humor of the situation. He covered his mouth for a second and then cleared his throat as Viola looked on with mounting irritation. "Sorry, sorry, let's continue." Ash said with a final chuckle.

"Okay… Get him, Surskit!" she cried, sending out the pond skater Pokémon .

"Espurr, come back! Spewpa, its your turn!" Ash called out, as Spewpa hopped down from his shoulders with excitement, and Espurr came back to his side.

"You... brought a Spewpa without evolving it? ...Ugh, whatever, this is just another one of your damn mind games." Viola said, sounding noticeably more frustrated than usual. Spewpa made a loud string of rude-sounding noises in response.

"Is there a problem?" Ash asked half-sincerely. He'd really rather not resort to cheap mind games to win, although he couldn't say he wasn't tempted.

"Not at all!" Viola shouted, although it came out harsher and more sarcastic than she intended. "Surskit, Scald!" Surskit raced forward in its side-to-side, sliding fashion, preparing the attack.

"Protect, then String Shot!" A wall of green energy blocked Surskit's attack as Spewpa leapt out from behind it and shot a copious stream of silk at Surskit, hitting just as it finished the attack and tangling its delicate legs. "Tackle!" Spewpa smashed his body into Surskit's full force, although because of the silk sticking to the ground as well it didn't get knocked back so far, which was actually what Ash expected.

"Ice Beam! " Viola shouted

"Protect, then cut!" Ash countered.

"Cut?!" Viola sputtered, absolutely dumbfounded. Spewpa's Protect easily blocked Surskit's Ice Beam before shifting to a thin, sharp disk and moving up to above Spewpa's head before swinging back down on Surskit in a circular motion, causing it to cry out in pain, and then again from the other direction, leaving thin but exceptionally painful cuts.

"Now push!" Ash said, as Spewpa immediately drew the Protect back, close to his body, and then brought it forward as fast and hard as possible, sending Surskit haphazardly rolling backwards with great speed. It stopped after several meters, but got up again, now an angry, sticky mess.

"Another usage of an offensive Protect...damnit, I should've known." Viola muttered to herself before taking a deep breath. "Surskit, Agility!" Surskit shuddered and then smoothly shot forward leaving much of the silk behind, now free of the speed impediment.

"Spewpa, spinning Stun Spore!" Ash cried out. Spewpa did several twirling hops as it sprayed Stun Spore around the area.

"Surskit, stand still and spray it away!" Viola cried, but as Surskit slowed and began to spray water, it tripped over a bit of still clinging silk, allowing Spewpa to hit it directly with Stun Spore. It staggered and sputtered, weakly stepping forward. "Fight, Surskit! Scald!" Viola yelled encouragingly, but Surskit's preparation of the attack was now much more sluggish, and Ash had time.

"String Shot, then Tackle!" Spewpa blasted Surskit with yet another stream of silk and then rammed it, sending it flying backwards. Surskit was unconscious on impact, finally overwhelmed.

"..Jeez...Surskit, take a good rest! Vivillon, let's go!" Viola cried out. As the butterfly Pokémon materialized, Spewpa leaned his whole body forwards and began to brazenly screech and trill at it, causing Vivillon to look down at him with a confused and rather offended expression. Ash and Viola could only share in Vivillon's confusion, especially because they had no idea what Spewpa was saying.

"...What's Spewpa doing?" Gary asked aloud. "I know Ash is a little weird, but he wouldn't train anything to trash talk the opponent…"

"I think he's angry that Vivillon has been losing…" Serena said. "Species pride, I guess…"

"What a card." Gary mumbled.

When Spewpa was done with his surprisingly impressive if completely unintelligible rant, Vivillon attempted to calmly answer, only to be cut off by more angry screeching and screaming from Spewpa. "Tell your Spewpa to behave himself!" Viola cried out indignantly, only for Ash to shrug his shoulders and shake his head rapidly with a completely lost expression. Finally, Vivillon appeared to have had enough and pushed Spewpa into Ash's legs with Psychic, countering with its own furious screaming and rapid, erratic fluttering. But Spewpa did the exact opposite of backing down, instead leaping back to it's battle position and letting out and incredibly loud and angry sounding cry before his entire body was bathed in brilliant light.

His body grew and became slimmer as antennae slowly extended, followed by the fur disappearing. Then came the formation of a pair of short, grasping legs and the more gradual appearance of the thin, oblong back legs. Finally, the wings formed as glowing buds, then exploded outwards all at once just before the light faded, revealing a newly evolved Vivillon, much to the surprise of everyone present.

"Did...did he just evolve with sheer anger?" Calem asked incredulously, earning only a simultaneous shrug from Gary and Serena.

"I give up trying to understand." Serena muttered.

"That's an interesting pattern though…" Gary noted, referring to the pattern of Ash's Vivillon. Black still rimmed the wings, but was now a more dominant color on the upper wings, contrasting with a large white patch on each wing. There were also two curving vertical stripes, one dark blue, one light blue, each briefly continuing on the lower wings as well. Towards Vivillon's body, however, was just solid grey, especially on the lower wings, which lacked extra black coloration and white patches.

"A Monsoon pattern, huh? What're you playing at anyway, taking the modest newbie route?! Those aren't easy to come by!" Viola shouted.

"I dunno, I just caught him in Santalune Forest a little over a week ago! ...He is apparently from somewhere else though." Ash answered honestly.

"...Fine then, I'll believe you" Viola said with a deep sigh. "Vivillon, Gust!" Viola's Vivillon rapidly flapped its wings, unleashing a powerful blast of wind that blew Ash's onto the floor. Ash's Vivillon looked up at her with an angry expression as he rapidly flapped his wings downwards, and quickly rose above the attack. Continuing the heightened flapping speed, Ash's Vivillon sent a mighty blast of wind at Viola's, knocking it back considerably. Then, with a discordant shout, he unleashed a flurry of small, glowing green projectiles from his wings, which erratically flew around Vivillon for a moment, hitting and pestering it before fading away.

"_That must have been Struggle Bug…_" Ash noted as Viola gave a command.

"Psychic!" Viola cried.

"Protect, then Gust!" Ash shouted out. The green frontal shield absorbed Psychic as Ash's Vivillon immediately flew out from behind it and flapped madly, blowing Viola's back considerably.

"Controlled Sleep Powder!" Viola yelled. Her Vivillon's eyes began to glow brightly as it produced a copious amount of greenish-yellow powder, which it then clustered together and shot directly at Ash's Vivillon with a Psychic. Ash's Vivillon darted downwards, but it came back around, and he had to dodge yet again, only for it to come around again. He was then chased around the gym with the concentrated attack, periodically fluttering wildly to very briefly keep it at bay before it could be reformed.

"Protect!" Ash cried out desperately. The barrier formed yet again, blocking the attacks, but it would only last a moment, and everyone knew it.

"Only a matter of time, Ash!" Viola said, as her Vivillon split the attack into multiple smaller condensed globules, all waiting for the shield to fail.

"Gust, then String Shot!" Ash cried out. Vivillon gave a shout of comprehension as he lowered the shield and blew away one side of the powder barrier, darting through before turning around and spraying every single globule with String Shot, completely coating them and rendering them heavy and harmless. "Now, return fire!" Ash's Vivillon immediately coated the globules in Protect, laughing wickedly as it sent them flying at Viola's Vivillon. It did a good job at dodging all but one, which collided soundly with its body and knocked the wind out of it, but it managed to dislodge the sticky mess in short order.

However, while it was doing so, Ash's Vivillon rapidly closed the distance between he and the other in a wide, rapid semicircle, .

"Sleep Powder!" Viola frantically yelled. Her Vivillon started to rapidly blow the attack towards Ash's Vivillon, but Ash's Vivillon automatically coated itself in yet another Protect, slicing through the powder cloud with ease to smack itself into Viola's Vivillon. He then cut into the wings with a series of small, incredibly sharp disks, rendering it unable to fly. Her Vivillon plummeted to the ground, and Ash's followed soon after with a diving Tackle, but Viola hadn't given up yet.

"Psychic!" she yelled as he began to descend, allowing for her Vivillon to send him shooting straight back upwards and have him crash into the ceiling, although not quite as fast as he would without the effects of Struggle Bug. Ash silently praised his Vivillon for his impulsive usage of the move as his Vivillon dropped off of the ceiling and began flying again, now angrier than ever.

"Gust!" Ash yelled triumphantly. With a final, utterly furious blast of wind, Viola's Vivillon was pummeled into unconsciousness, giving Ash the win. "All right!" he shouted, feeling as if he were on top of the world as his Vivillon snickered at Viola's Vivillon, but roughly helped it up before flying back to Ash. Calem was not at all surprised as both Gary and Serena began to cheer loudly, seeming to be in a brief cheering competition before Serena stopped and just glared at Gary for a moment.

"Well then…" Viola said, as she returned her Vivillon. "Congratulations, everyone! You're all official winners of the Bug Badge! Come on, come on, there's plenty to go around. But you'd better watch out, I'm telling everyone else that you're the real deal!" Viola declared, as Ash, Gary, and Calem all made their way towards her with bright smiles and she placed three badges on her outstretched hand. She then reached the other hand into one of her pockets and produced three Infestation disks. "I know it's kinda weird that I didn't use it, but that's actually part of the fun for me. 'Oh, Viola is so easy, she's gonna use Infestation!'" she said, mimicking a generic Trainer's voice. "And then they're all 'Viola cheated, she didn't use Infestation at all!' " she added, in a sadder, whinier generic voice.

As Ash grabbed his badge and TM, he briefly felt the need to thrust the badge high into the air and make a cheesy proclamation of victory, complete with an eye-catching, brightly colored background that would inexplicably appear from absolutely nowhere and never be questioned. Fortunately, he figured he simply watched too much TV. "Thank you, Viola, for a great battle." Ash said with a smile.

"Yes, thank you very much." Calem chimed in. Viola just nodded and smiled respectfully...at least until Gary said something.

"I had a lot of fun. You almost beat me, you know." His deep voice and alluring green eyes didn't help her keep her composure at all.

"W-well, I was just fortunate! Surely, that strategy of yours would've ruined me effortlessly otherwise!" Viola nervously complimented. "Ahaha...I-I don't have anything more to give you, but...but…" Viola stammered.

"But?" Gary asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Please let me take pictures of you!" Viola cried, blushing vibrantly.

"_Thirsty much, Viola?_" Calem whispered to Serena, causing both of them to stifle giggles.

"Uh… Okay…" Gary replied hesitantly. Viola gave an ecstatic smile in response.

"There's no time to lose! To the picture room!" Viola cried in an overexcited haze, before remembering the others were there. "Oh, uh, you three can go get the egg now, if you'd like!" she said in a more pleasant, subdued tone. "Someone escort them, please!" she shouted out to the whole gym, as she quickly led Gary away. By physically grabbing his arm. Ash practically wanted to combust on the spot. However, he wasn't even involved anymore, so he felt it was useless to care so much.

"Watch, there's gonna 'just happen' to be a fancy bed in there." Serena joked, as both she and Calem giggled.

"With candles." Calem added in.

"And rose petals." Serena suggested, giggling even more.

"Oh no, Gary, this is just for a picture, really!" Calem said in a higher, more shy and innocent voice.

"Come on…Guys..." Ash moaned.

"Oh, don't mind me Gary, I just take better pictures naked!" Serena said, imitating Calem's tone, causing them both to burst out laughing.

"I t-take better p-pictures naked!" Calem repeated in an unsteady voice, while laughing like mad.

"Guys, cut it out!" Ash cried in exasperation

"Get on top of me, it's an experimental camera angle, I swear!" a perfect imitation of Viola's voice added in, causing Calem and Serena to momentarily freeze in horror as they turned to the source of the voice… Only to see that it was an employee who had come to escort them and laugh harder than ever.

"I'LL GO GET IT MYSELF." Ash shouted, utterly done with everything.

* * *

**So, what do you think the egg will hatch into? Your guesses...may or may not...influence the end result! (Hint: If you really want it to, support your guess and state what the potential Pokemon could contribute to battles/the story itself, because I already know what it is otherwise.)**

**(Hint Hint: It doesn't necessarily have to be a Bug type, I haven't even explained how Viola obtained it.)**

**And yeah. I changed Surskit's Bubblebeam to Scald, because Scald is like way more awesome and not really a stretch considering the other moves Viola's team knows. And no main character loses in this chapter. Because fuck the anime, ASH OF ALL PEOPLE, ASH WHO HAS TOTALLY PULLED SHIT OUT OF HIS ASS TO WIN should know that you don't automatically win and still have to take things seriously when you have the type advantage. After 40 goddamn badges, plus all the other shit he's been through, he damn well should've been able to think of his rematch strategies the first time around.**

**Yes, I UNDERSTAND why the anime pulls shit like this. After all, no one's perfect all the time, it's not gonna be over any time soon, and they gotta keep the story fresh and convey the "its okay to lose" lesson to all the impressionable kiddies. However, that doesn't automatically make me 100% okay with it.**

**Sorry for the rant, I just get very...emotional...about the Pokémon anime and it's choices.**


	7. Mother And 'Son'

**Ch 7: Mother and 'Son'**

**Reviews are still slow, which is rather disappointing, but I do get a lot of views (for me, at least), so I'll try my best to stick with this. Sorry this took so long, I've been slacking off a bit, even though it's not like I do much of anything else… Anyway. **

**Remember, reviews are always welcome!**

**Things should start to get more interesting/divergent too, now that we're one badge in and things have been established.**

* * *

After waiting for several minutes so Viola could finish taking pictures of Gary, the group left the gym in high spirits. Ash was now carrying a cylindrical, transparent incubation case, which contained a dark green egg on a small, folded blanket.

"So, Gary, what happened in there? She wasn't too aggressive, was she?" Calem teased.

"Well, it was all pretty normal… But there was a part where she wanted me to grasp a rose in my teeth…" Gary said almost-jokingly. Ash turned towards him in subdued alarm as Calem spoke again.

"Did she start playing funky music?" they joked.

"Nah, but there was this really soft, fluffy bed that she had me pose on…" Gary explained. Ash's eyes widened as he continued. "Then she was all 'I wanna feel what _your _Sticky Web feels like, Mr. Oak~_Rrrr_." Gary finished, as his words degraded into uncontrollable laughter. Ash just gave him an unimpressed glare.

"What is with EVERYONE and the bed jokes?!" Ash cried.

"Unlike you, I can actually tell when people are into me. I've got the charm, what can I say?" Gary teased.

"Well, I can say that when you were a kid, a Rattata bit you and you thought you were gonna become a mutant! How's that for charm?" Ash argued back, clearly unconvinced.

"I was joking about that!" Gary asserted, as Serena and Calem giggled.

"What about when you snuck the Professor's liquor and tried to-" Ash started.

"DON'T TELL THEM ABOUT THAT!" Gary desperately interrupted, automatically outstretching a panicked hand towards Ash.

"No, no, please do!" Serena insisted, Gary's reaction only making her more curious.

"He had some too!" Gary cried.

"I did not!" Ash countered indignantly. "You /tried/ to give me some, then you wanted to sloppily make out with me, then you wanted to dance with me, then you started loudly asking random questions to the air, then I eventually convinced you go to sleep and I had to bullshit a lie about you getting caught in a cloud of Vileplume powder!"

"Oh my god…" Serena muttered, as she covered her mouth to prevent too much laughter from escaping.

"I've had prouder moments." Gary said as dismissively as he could, while tightly crossing his arms with just the slightest hint of red surfacing on his cheeks.

Now that their primary reason for being in Santalune Town was done, the group planned to head to Route 4. However, they would not actually be getting there for quite some time, since Santalune Gym was all the way on the other side of the city, and there were still a couple of things that needed to be done first. For starters, everyone except Serena had exhausted Pokémon to heal. So the group headed off to the Pokémon Center first, which wasn't very far from the gym due to the obvious correlation. Once they entered the quaint, comforting, red-roofed building and handed their Pokémon in for healing, Ash and Gary decided it'd be the perfect chance to make a call to Professor Oak.

The elderly gray haired man appeared on the video chat screen after a brief wait, his eyes immediately lighting up upon seeing who it was. "Oh, Ash, Gary, what a nice surprise! Is everything going well in Kalos so far?" Professor Oak asked.

"Definitely, Professor! We just got our first badges! The Gym Leader even gave me a Pokémon egg!" Ash exclaimed, proudly showing Oak the Bug Badge and his new egg.

"Excellent, excellent! You two are definitely talented! Hmm… Looks like that egg will be… No, I'll let you find out on your own." The Professor said warmly, as something slick, blue, and angular stuck out from behind him. He turned around in confusion, while Gary cocked an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Is that…" Gary started, as a blocky, pink and blue Pokémon came out from behind Professor Oak and gave a joyful series of beeps and whistles. "Ramiel!" Gary cried. "Good to see you!" Ramiel beeped back loudly in response, and flew in a small, rapid circle.

"Ramiel? Ireul would've been more fitting, no?" Calem asked.

"Are we really all this nerdy?" Serena muttered, a bit ashamed that she immediately recognized why Calem said that.

"Ramiel's not scary enough to be the angel of fear." Gary argued, ignoring and only half-hearing Serena's question.

"Anyway…" Oak started. "It's quite odd, Ramiel wasn't here before…must have just snuck in here." Oak reasoned, before Ramiel started to glow brightly, then suddenly shoot towards the screen as a beam of light, engulfing the entire view in brilliant white. "Oh my!" came Professor Oak's somewhat distorted voice from the other end, just as surprised as everyone in the Pokémon Center now was.

"If you did something to that machine, you have to pay for it!" Nurse Joy shouted sternly, as the glowing light only became more intense, and something solid, blocky, and glowing began to slowly protrude from the screen.

"From Evangelion to Digimon, no?" Calem muttered, as the shape grew, protruding further and further from the screen. Finally, as the light faded, it quickly shot forward all at once, hurtling Gary to the floor. Ramiel now stood on top of him, contentedly beeping and making various chiptune-esque noises.

"Did Ramiel just… download itself to here?" Ash asked aloud in exasperation.

"Looks like it…" Gary grunted, as he lifted himself off the floor. "...If you wanna be here that badly, fine." Gary told the virtual Pokémon in a defeated tone, as Ramiel gave him its own Poké Ball and beeped excitedly.

"A boy and his artificial...bird...thingy…" Calem said. "How beautiful." they sarcastically finished.

"Yes...well… that certainly… wasn't what I was expecting… " Oak said, while slowly scratching the back of his head. "On the other hand, I'm very surprised you're together! I certainly thought it'd take longer."

"...Wait...what's that supposed to mean? You knew this would happen?" Ash asked, irritation creeping into his voice. It wasn't like he just couldn't bear to be without Gary! He was an adult now! He could've totally continued the journey alone! ...Why was he feeling so defensive about this, anyway?

"...Let's just say I owe your mother a couple thousand pyen…"

"Professor!" Ash cried.

"No, no, I'm only joking! No need to get riled up!" Oak answered, while laughing nervously. After a moment, he cleared his throat and appeared to now be focusing on the area behind Ash and Gary. "And who are those two?" Oak asked. "That young lady looks a bit familiar…"

Ash and Gary moved aside as Gary began to speak. "She's Serena, the other one is Calem. Ash was already with them when I ran into him. I was gonna go off on my own, but they all just /begged/ me to stay…"

"Just admit you got lost in a forest with us!" Ash sharply interjected.

"...More like I /led/ you out with my navigational prowess." Gary answered, although the little smile he cracked made it much more obvious he was joking.

"Whatever." Ash grumbled, as Calem and Serena turned around and came closer.

"Oh, Professor Oak! It's really been a long time, huh?" Serena said, smiling gently.

"Ah, yes, your face is coming back to me now! …You've hardly changed at all!" Oak said, causing Serena to frown ever-so-slightly and adopt a more furtive expression.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir!" Calem said happily.

"Oh, no, the pleasure is mine. You're not feeling too overwhelmed by my two boys here, are you?" Oak lightly teased.

"It's been a little scary so far, but I'll be fine!" Calem said modestly, as Ash and Gary thought back to the sight of a Floette almost effortlessly destroying Viola's Vivillon with stony faces. Maybe that question was directed to the wrong person.

"That's fine! Yes, the world can be scary sometimes, but Pokémon are not our enemies! At least, not inherently…" Professor Oak said.

"You must know just about everything about them, no?" Calem said warmly.

"Ah, I don't know about that! I've certainly learned a lot over the years, but sometimes it seems like we'll never truly know everything! ...Sometimes, it feels like there are things I don't want to know." Oak finished the response in a tone that was just a bit too serious, before quickly continuing. "But honestly, I've got quite a busy schedule, you've got a whole journey ahead of you, and I've also got about a million boring details you wouldn't want to hear! So I'll be taking my leave now! Be careful, everyone!" Oak said.

As everyone said goodbye, the screen went dark. Ash called his mother next, already expecting her to react to Gary in an unintentionally annoying way. Not that it actually stopped him from tensing up when she took one look at Gary and gave a knowing little smile and giggle. It was probably part of the reason why he cut the conversation a bit short.

* * *

The group left the Pokémon Center shortly afterwards, with their Pokémon in top condition. Orchid and Dahlia hovered near Calem's shoulders, and Vivillon perched on Ash's backpack while Espurr walked alongside him. But even so, they still weren't going to get to Route 4 as soon as planned. All because of one woman whose face almost looked like Calem's. The main difference was her eyes, which were a much lighter color, nearly golden in fact, and far more intense. She wore a white, unusually expensive-looking summer dress, and came out of the town's hotel without warning just after the group walked past the door. Calem almost immediately tensed up, but didn't say anything to anyone. "There you are, boy!" she sharply called, just as Calem thought they'd be able to get by without seeing each other.

"I wonder who they're calling for…" Ash wondered aloud, as the woman smartly yet quickly strode towards them and called again, her voice angrier this time.

"BOY! You listen to your mother! Do you know how long I took to get here, hm?!" she fruiously called out.

"Calem, isn't that…" Serena started, but Calem just quickly shushed her and pretended not to hear anything. The woman was now nearly jogging to where they were, her eyes becoming more intense by the second.

"She kind of looks like you…" Gary said, as he turned around to look as well.

"Don't remind me." Calem muttered. "Dahlia, quickly dear! A cover!" Calem said in a somewhat strained, hurried voice. Thick, billowing, softly glowing blue fog began to pour outwards from Dahlia's body as Calem immediately took off running down the street.

"What's the deal?!" Gary shouted in confusion, as he tried to wave some of the heavy fog away.

"It's a long story…" Serena said dejectedly.

"GET BACK HERE YOU DISOBEDIENT, STUBBORN, OBSTINATE, DESPICABLE LITTLE…" the woman shouted, as she threw a Poké Ball into the air. The fog had started to clear enough to see the immediate surroundings, so the remainder of the group couldn't help but be surprised to see a large, purple bat Pokémon with four wings, which immediately blew the mist away with the powerful, incessant flapping of its wings. "Crobat, after him!" she cried. The Crobat gave a loud screech and immediately took to the skies with immense speed.

"You there! Sarah!" The woman shouted, as she hurriedly ran towards the remaining three teens.

"It's...it's Serena…" Serena muttered somewhat bitterly.

"Work with me here! Tell me where my son is planning to go."

"With all due respect, Calem is not your _son_, ma'am…" Serena said with strained politeness.

"That's always been his problem! Being things he's not, and doing things he's not supposed to! So why in the world should I believe him about this, hm?!" Calem's mother yelled, shouting in Serena's face.

"Calem is fifteen years old… and they've been doing just fine with you being gone for most of their life…" Serena explained with limited patience, looking her dead in the eye.

"Nonsense! My boy will only get himself hurt! How do you think I feel, coming home for the first time in so long, only to hear my only son has run away to be a Pokémon trainer, hm?! After what happened with that Diggersby, too?" the woman said, now sounding genuinely hurt and upset rather than just angry.

"That was _eight years ago_, Irene. And it was awfully hard to tell you cared this much during the other times you came home." Serena said rather passive-aggressively.

"Quiet, you rude girl! This is a matter of mother and son! You think you know the situation, hm?! Well, you should just be eternally grateful I never made you pay for all your wanton freeloading!"

"Like I don't know Calem's grandparents have more say in it than you ever will…" Serena muttered.

"Don't go thinking you're above me, girl! I'm Irene Xavier! Do you have any idea what I could do to you, hm?" Irene chided, her eyes practically blazing.

"Pfft. An Xavier…" Serena dryly remarked.

Irene's left eye twitched. "Okay." she said, suddenly disturbingly calm. "Okay. Tell me, how many badges do you have on this ridiculous journey of yours? Is it enough to take me on in a battle, hm?"

"Doesn't matter, because it'll never amount to more than your ridiculous ego." Serena said dismissively.

"Of all the nerve! I'll put you in your place, just you watch!" Irene shouted, as she backed away to a suitable battling distance. "Roserade!" she said while tossing a Poké Ball into the air. In a burst of light, a short, green, humanoid Pokémon with flowers instead of hands and a cape and mask made of plant matter appeared, taking a confident stance.

"Houndour!" Serena cried, as she sent out the loyal canine Pokémon.

"Oh, so you think this will be easy, hm?" Irene said with a sneer. "Roserade, Rain Dance!" Roserade immediately began charging a ball of glowing blue energy between its flower appendages.

"Houndour, Ember!" Serena quickly said. A volley of small flames pelted Roserade in quick succession, causing it to lose control of the Rain Dance and send it flying off down the street. "Watch out, ma'am. Your age may be beginning to show in your technique." Serena said with mock politeness.

"YOU INDIGNANT-"

"Ember!" Serena interrupted, getting Roserade pelted with a face full of fire once again. "Smog!" Houndour quickly created a thick, heavy cloud of putrid black smoke.

"What a disgusting tactic!" Irene said, attempting to look through the acrid smoke in utter frustration.

"Houndour, keep making Smog and push Irene down!" Serena commanded. Houndour complied, belching out more of the ugly substance as he maneuvered around the confused Roserade, who wasn't sure where to fire an attack. With a powerful leap forward, Houndour successfully tackled Irene to the ground. "Good boy! Now, get her Poké Balls!" Houndour immediately set to work, stripping Irene of her jewel-studded Poké Ball strap in no time flat, and proudly running back to Serena with it.

"Well damn." Ash mumbled to himself.

"It's not fair, but I'll be damned if it doesn't work…" Gary muttered.

"How dare you! This-" Irene paused for a moment of harsh coughing. "This is hardly a victory at all! Corrupting my son like this! Who do you think you are, hm?"

"I didn't want to win." Serena explained matter-of-factly. "I wanted you to leave Calem alone."

"That's my flesh and blood we're talking about! How dare you think you have more authority than I do?!"

"Because I've probably been around Calem more than you have, as sad as that sounds." Serena said with absolutely no pity or compassion in her voice. "Calem doesn't like you. Hell, I don't think you like them either. Neither of us do. Here you are, going on and on about your child, and you won't even acknowledge that your child isn't a fucking boy!"

"Serena, I know you're kind of having a moment here, but are you sure about this?" Ash hesitantly asked. "I don't even know both sides of the story yet, but maybe she has a valid point underneath her flaws in understanding." Irene looked over to him warily, but Serena began to speak again as her Houndour's Smog settled.

"I'm sorry. I see where you're coming from, Ash, but you honestly don't know Calem's mom." she answered, causing Irene to scowl.

"Not even a scrap of faith in me or your friends! " Irene said haughtily, as she stood up and wiped herself off. "And you say you're looking out for Calem? No matter, my Crobat should leave that boy no choice but to give up." Irene said, only to hear a sizable thud behind her. When she turned around, she discovered it was her own unconscious Crobat, in a bruised, bloody heap. Orchid and Dahlia floated just in front of her face, also rather battered and tired looking. "What?!" she cried, as Calem walked around the corner.

"Go home, _Irene_." Calem said in a cold, detached manner, their voice much deeper and more forceful than usual. "I do not want you to decide my life for me."

"Oh, tough now because you have your friends, hm? I am your mother, boy! How dare you disrespect me like this?"

"Because you're not actually concerned, you're just jealous, no?" Calem said emotionlessly.

"Jealous?! Of you?! What in the world would possess you to even think of that notion, hm?"

"You went after Papa for his money and talent, and then you just went along for the ride, no? You're not like Papa, or Nana, or Grandpa. You're not talented. You're not special. You're not even happy. You're just bitter and selfish, because you got so caught up in fame and money that you never got to have your own dreams. So now you want to take my dreams too, no? Just so I can be as sad and hollow as you." Serena seemed to be completely in support of Calem's words. On the other hand, Ash and Gary were simply staring, mouths slightly agape. Calem, of all people, talked to their own mother like this?! Irene simply glared at her child, absolutely livid.

"But I must thank you, Irene. If you really had so little faith in me, you wouldn't have come out here to find me. You're afraid, aren't you Irene? Now that I finally have my chance, you're afraid. Because deep down, you believe in me, no? You know I'll do it. You know I'll be better than you. I'm scaring you, but not like how you pretend I do." Calem said coldly.

"Who told you something like that?! Moreover, what do you think gives you the right to speak this way, hm?!" Irene shouted.

"Papa told me, not too long after your affair." Calem said. Ash and Gary's eyes widened. They hadn't heard about that. "He told me everything about you."

"That idiotic man knows nothing! Does nothing! Things just wrap right around his fingers, and he doesn't even have to try! Well, what about the rest of us, hm? What do the rest of us do, hm?! What are we supposed to do, hm?!" Irene cried, her voice somewhat pitchy and unstable now.

"Not be like you, perhaps? Actually do _something_ otherthan forcing their own children to do _nothing, _maybe?" Calem answered simply, which seemed to set their mother off more than ever.

"Listen here, you ungrateful brat! Your father is wrong! I am on a level you will never attain! Never! Such a dainty, spoiled, spineless, cross-dressing, fairy-coddling, back talking, pig-headed son couldn't get even a single badge!"

"Well it's a wonderful thing that you don't have a son, because I do have a badge." Calem said, exposing the inside of their jacket to show her the small piece of metal pinned into the fabric. Irene seemed to be visibly rather stunned, taking a step back before composing herself again.

"Beginner's luck." Irene mumbled.

"I do not have any more time for you, Irene. Leave." Calem said.

"I will do no such thing!" Irene cried, stomping her foot. Calem whistled loudly, and Dahlia immediately forced Roserade to the ground with a Psychic, while Orchid began to collect pink light at the top of her flower, aiming it directly at Irene.

"Calem!" Ash cried, looking on with alarm as Orchid slowly charged the blast. In contrast, Vivillon excitedly took flight, getting well above Ash with an expectant gleam in his eyes.

"Leave!" Calem shouted in a venomous tone. In that moment, their eyes were as fiery and severe as Irene's. Irene scowled, but eventually complied, then came forward to roughly snatch her Poké Ball strap away from Houndour. After that, she sneered as she returned her Roserade and Crobat, then walked away at a brisk pace. She took long, firm, angry steps, and never looked back.

"Calem-" Ash started.

"I would not like to talk about it." Calem quickly and firmly answered. "Let's just keep moving. I've heard Route 4 is exceptionally beautiful." Calem said, their voice shifting back to its usual higher-pitched, softer, and more gentle sound.

"That was fucked up." Gary mumbled, eyeing Calem warily.

"You're telling me." Ash responded quietly.

Despite the encounter, things managed to settle back down soon enough. After all, Route 4 truly was beautiful, and the group found it rather easy to focus back on training and capturing Pokémon. Calem went off looking for a Ralts, while the rest of the group found their own things to do. Although no one said it out loud, they figured Calem needed the alone time.

* * *

"I still can't believe you think Dunsparce are cute." Gary grumbled to Serena, as she happily trained the Land Snake Pokémon in the use of Pursuit.

"Because they /are/ cute! They're chubby and cuddly and they have big heads! Just like puppies!" Serena asserted.

"That Dunsparce is nothing like a damn puppy, and I am not even sorry for saying that." Gary said, earning an annoyed glare from Dunsparce.

"Oh? Then what's the appeal in a Porygon? It's just a spiky digital duck-thingy." Serena countered.

"Ramiel is /cool/, I'll have you know." Gary shot back indignantly.

"Plus he spent two months on and off getting enough coins for it at a casino. He went broke three times. Those phone calls were pretty funny, let me tell you…" Ash said.

"WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS TELLING MY PERSONAL BUSINESS?" Gary cried.

"Because if you won't admit your weaknesses, who will?" Ash countered.

"Fuck you, that's who. Anyway, Porygon is a testament to the brilliance of mankind! And Dunsparce is a fat snake that digs backwards. So there." Gary argued.

"A testament to the brilliance of mankind, and you trained yours to recite memes… Truly amazing." Ash dryly remarked.

"I don't know what you're talking about…" Gary started nervously, before Porygon suddenly shuddered for a moment and then, in a digitalized shout, it spoke.

"I'M A STRONG, INDEPENDENT BLACK WOMAN WHO DON'T NEED NO MAN!"

"Are you fucking kidding me." Serena deadpanned.

"NO, THIS IS PATRICK!" Ramiel cried.

"I thought this was really funny when I was younger, okay?!" Gary said defensively. "Ramiel, just be quiet for now."

Ramiel was quiet for all of two seconds before it shouted once more, loudly and tonelessly. "...AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT."

"Way to let the best indicator of what a fucking dork you used to be come to Kalos with you, Gary~" Ash teased.

"Shut up, Ash! You were obsessed with some stupid contest for a hat you don't even wear anymore!" Gary said defensively.

"You're just jealous because you wanted that hat." Ash responded.

"I wanted that hat like I wanted another hole in my head." Gary said.

"Wouldn't hurt, since you really needed a way to let out all that hot air back then." Ash quipped.

"Go teach your Espurr how to draw dicks!" Gary said snappily.

"That had to be one of the most mature comebacks ever thought up, lemme tell ya. I'm gonna have to write that one down. Maybe I'll send it to a museum or something. Have it put on a plaque. Never before has a 19 year old man had the vocabulary and oral prowess to make a retort like that. Wow." Ash responded, tone dripping with dry, toneless sarcasm.

"I'm just gonna ignore you now." Gary said with finality, walking away and motioning for Ramiel to follow.

The ensuing lack of any real distractions was significantly less entertaining, but it did give everyone more of a chance to train. Ash placed his egg incubator in a safe area where it'd be easy to keep an eye on, and got started. Since he was newly evolved, Ash focused on Vivillon. So far, Vivillon was learning his various powder-oriented moves, in order to eventually be able to learn Psychic and emulate the strategy Viola's Vivillon had used. Vivillon was quite powerful and talented, but Ash did find it somewhat upsetting that the best way to motivate Vivillon was to have him participate in actual battles against unsuspecting wild Pokémon. Sparring or practicing on objects just didn't incite the same sort of passion or effort. Meanwhile, until Vivillon was ready to learn Psychic, Espurr was teaching the move to Ramiel. Houndour kept watch, since Espurr repeatedly attempted to run off and play in the hedge mazes.

Gary had Riolu train against Amaura's ice walls, expecting that he would soon discover how to use Force Palm. In turn, Amaura was learning how to use Reflect to reinforce her ice walls, greatly increasing their defensive strength.

This whole process went on until everyone was either bored or exhausted, so Serena started up lunch, only to almost immediately notice that Calem hadn't returned yet.

"Jeez… I hope they didn't get lost in a hedge maze…" she muttered, only to hear a distant, familiar yelling soon after saying it.

"_GIVE… ME... BACK... MY... SUNGLASSES!" _ came Calem's strained, labored voice, as they slowly and weakly ran after a Ralts, who was holding a very familiar pair of black-rimmed sunglasses as it performed a surprisingly fast and efficient mixture of teleporting and running, giggling gleefully as it went. It made no effort to evade the rest of the group, even briefly appearing on top of Gary's head and sticking its tongue out at Calem before vanishing again. Calem took significantly longer to reach the group, panting and sputtering as they steadily came to a stop.

"Having trouble?" Gary said in a jokingly oblivious tone.

"SHE... S-SHE TOOK MY SUNGLASSES!" Calem complained, still breathing heavily.

"You never even wear them properly anyway, you just stick them on your forehead like a ner-" Upon receiving death glares from both Calem and Serena, Gary reconsidered his words. "...nerve-wrackingly stylish and attractive person..."

"It's not about the functionality! Those were Grandpa's sunglasses!" Calem cried.

"And since you're being so polite and supportive, Gary, why don't you go after that Ralts?" Serena said sternly, frowning at Gary.

"Why the hell do I have to-" Gary started.

"I was just making lunch." Serena interrupted, as she held up an impressively sharp kitchen knife with a small smile. "I can hurt you a hell of a lot more than the other way around, don't you forget~"

"Jeez, okay, not everyone heals like you; calm the fuck down." Gary said. "And you-" he started, looking at Calem. "It's called cardio." he said, before running off in the direction the Ralts went and motioning for his Pokémon to follow.

"Ash, I know he's hot and in shape and everything, but… _why?_" Serena asked, once Gary was far enough away.

"Hormones are a scary and confusing thing, Serena. Take it from a biology researcher." Ash said simply.

"Hormones cause flings, Ash. You guys were practically married." Serena responded, not buying Ash's excuse.

"Does that bother you?" Ash said with a little smile, causing a rush of color to appear in Serena's face.

"It definitely does." Calem said with a knowing smile.

"Well, I uh... can't really- It's kind of like- Wait, don't change the subject on me!" Serena cried. "You answer the question I gave you!"

"Well, about that, I guess it's kinda like how you think Dunsparce are cute..." Ash said.

"Okay, I guess that makes a little more- Wait, are you saying you don't think they're cute either?!" Serena cried. "Besides that, it's actually an awful comparison! That's like saying liking horseradish is the same as liking chocolate!"

Ash paused for a moment, seemingly to seriously consider her words before continuing. "...Okay, you really wanna know why?" Ash said, his voice becoming dead serious.

"Why?" Serena asked.

"Really wanna know?" Ash asked again

"Yeah!" Serena excitedly answered.

"Reeeallly?" Ash asked once more.

"Yes, just please tell me already!" Serena snapped.

"Dick too bomb." Ash stated in a deathly serious monotone, eliciting a brief moment of pause before Serena and even Calem fell into lengthy fits of laughter. With the subsequent lightening of the mood, Calem found it much easier to wait for Gary to get back, and the three teens happily chatted as Serena resumed making lunch.

Meanwhile, Gary was only having limited luck with retrieving the sunglasses. On one hand, he'd managed to catch up with Ralts, who was busy showing her steal off to a group of other Ralts, deep within the flower fields. On the other hand, he'd already managed to run into Ralts twice, and she easily got away both times. But this time, he was a good distance away, and he hadn't been spotted yet.

"You're not getting away this time…" Gary mumbled under his breath. "Amaura, Icy Wind." Gary quietly ordered. The little dinosaur inhaled deeply, then gave the entire group of Ralts an extremely unpleasant blast of freezing cold winds. "Ramiel, get the one with the glasses before she teleports!" Gary commanded. With a burst of speed, Ramiel tackled the sunglasses-holding Ralts, sending the glasses flying into the air. Nimbly, Riolu jumped into the air and grabbed them without even being told. "Riolu, get back to the group! You're the quickest!" Gary said. Riolu nodded and darted off at top speed, while the Ralts all looked on in horror. Taking advantage of the diversion, Gary wasted no time. "Amaura, again! Don't let them retaliate! Ramiel, use Agility for faster hits!"

"GOTTA GO FAST." Ramiel announced blankly over the sound of howling, icy winds, sliding its blocky body into each weak, shivering Ralts with incredible speed. Gary smirked triumphantly as each Ralts fell unconscious. Picking up the Ralts that had stolen the sunglasses, (Tightly, to discourage any trickery) Gary began briskly jogging back to his friends.

"You should probably pay me for this." Gary said half-jokingly to Calem, after he returned.

"Oh yeah, sure." Calem said as if it were common sense, pulling three 10,000 pyen notes from their pocket without even the slightest sign of discomfort or regret.

"Holy fucking shit." Gary said in a low, breathy tone, simply staring and gaping at the money as Calem held it out to him.

"Maybe I should catch something for Calem too…" Ash muttered.

"CALEM!" Serena chided, causing Calem to retract their arm.

"...Was that a lot?" Calem asked in confusion. "It didn't seem like it, he did all the important work…"

"One: yes it was. Two: that's not the point, it's a favor! You don't pay at all!" Serena cried.

"A favor? You were gonna stab me if I didn't do it!" Gary complained.

"Oh come on now, I wasn't /really/ going to stab you. You were so easily convinced because deep down you wanted to do it all along." Serena told him with a mischievous grin.

"That's so stupid I'm not even gonna argue. Calem, just catch this damn Ralts before she wakes up." Gary said impatiently. With a shrug, Calem held out a Poké Ball and sucked the small Psychic type inside. Compared to all the trouble she had caused before, it really wasn't much of a struggle at all.

"Thanks Gary! I'm gonna call her Wisteria!" Calem said happily

"Thanks isn't worth 30,000 pyen…" Gary mumbled.

"I heard that." Serena said in a warning tone.

"I don't fucking care." Gary growled.

"Would you care if I 'accidentally' burn your lunch?" Serena retorted.

"Guys, guys, let's not hurt each other now…" Ash interrupted.

Luckily, that was enough, and the rest of the day went by in relative peace and harmony.


	8. Not Just Kitten Around

**Ch 8: Not Just Kitten Around**

Route 4 was supposed to be an easy, one day trip, no matter how you looked at it. But between battling, training, goofing off, and the Pokémon playing tag in the hedge mazes, the group managed to burn through that entire first day and only get most of the way through. Espurr especially seemed to get distracted very easily, often running off in random directions or hanging back to toy with random objects.

"I'm starting to think you're doing this on purpose…" Ash muttered, as he slowly approached Espurr for what felt like the umpteenth time on the morning of their second day on Route 4. Serena had long since been holding his egg for him, due to how often it happened. Whatever reason it could possibly be was starting to matter less and less, Ash was just flat out starting to lose his patience. Espurr firmly stood his ground, staring holes into Ash with the strongest and most unnerving gaze he could muster. Every time Ash drew close, Espurr's eyes would flash and he'd push Ash back with a burst of telekinesis. This would repeat multiple times, with Espurr periodically moving or running away in between pushes, until Ash would finally put his foot down and Espurr would begrudgingly stop.

"He's basically just a kid, I'm sure he's not trying to annoy you on purpose…" Serena said in a comforting tone, as Ash tightly secured Espurr in his arms, while the small kitten Pokémon mewled and hissed in protest.

"Then why is he being so uncooperative? We weren't having this problem earlier…" Ash muttered, as he felt Espurr's mind push at his arms.

"I guess he's just testing your boundaries. Maybe you've been babying him too much." Gary suggested.

"I trained him to blast gaping craters in stuff with his mind, how is that babying him?!" Ash asked in exasperation.

"Hell if I know, he's your Pokémon." Gary answered simply.

"Wow, thanks, you're too helpful." Ash muttered, before feeling an odd, burning ache in his temples. "Ow! Stop that!" Ash scolded, now looking towards Espurr. He simply gave a loud whine in response, and pressed on, increasing the unpleasant sensation even more. "Cut it out!" Ash shouted, as Espurr squirmed his way out of Ash's arms while Ash couldn't help but bring one of his hands to his head. A foreign, detached sense of immense regret, sadness, and urgency seemed to bubble up in Ash's head like a pot boiling over as Espurr did so.

"Ash, are you okay?" Gary asked, nearly tripping over Serena's foot as they both quickly lurched towards Ash at the same time.

"It's fine…" Ash said with mild irritation, as he looked up at Espurr with a stern expression. "Look, I don't know what the problem is, but you're not gonna get your way if you act like a little brat." Ash sternly said to the small kitten, who immediately laid down on the ground and curled up tightly, feelings clearly hurt. "Don't give me that act! Maybe you can behave yourself in the Poké Ball!" Ash said, as he held up the familiar red and white capsule. Espurr stood up again, and Ash was suddenly hit with a sense of great, desperate pleading as Espurr stared directly at him. But when Espurr was only met with Ash's stern, impatient eyes, he sighed and simply allowed himself to be returned.

"What could that be about?" Calem wondered aloud, as Ash looked at Espurr's Poké Ball in deep thought.

"...Maybe there's something we need to watch out for." Gary suggested. "After all, Pokémon can detect things we can't, especially Psychic types."

"...Maybe…" Ash said. "For now, let's just keep walking…"

Espurr managed to obediently stay in his Poké Ball all the way until the group reached the outer gates of Lumiose City, and Ash was treated to the familiar sight of a young man and young woman in white clothes, standing outside of the gate. "Remember us?" Dexio said with a smile.

Everyone but Ash looked quite confused, while Espurr popped out of his Poké Ball of his own accord and growled lowly at them.

"Yeah yeah, hello to you too." Dexio said dismissively.

"He's not usually like this…" Ash said with a strained smile, as he picked Espurr up and held him firmly.

"Yeah buddy, we get it, every newbie thinks they're the greatest trainer there is…" Dexio said, mirroring the strained smile almost sarcastically.

"I've studied Pokémon behaviors under a senior Pokémon authority for over six years, but okay, you're clearly the expert here…" Ash mumbled in a quick, low voice.

"Ahaha! Dexio, Dexio, aren't we here to HELP these people?" Sina asked in a forced, saccharine tone.

"Oh, yes, yes! We are, Sina, we are!" Dexio said. "Professor Sycamore knew you'd be getting here soon, so he sent us out to give you a gift before escorting you to his lab!" Dexio said, as he produced four small, plain looking disks. "Ta da! The TM for Return!" Dexio said, before swiftly and neatly handing them out.

"Thank you…" Ash said a bit reluctantly.

"But I'm pretty sure you've never even met any of us besides Ash, so how'd you know to bring four?" Gary asked curiously. Dexio faltered for a split second but regained his composure with a hair flip, while Sina just pulled a smile. Calem's eyes narrowed, and Espurr growled again.

"Oh, they're nothing special, I carry a bunch of them around all the time!" Dexio responded.

"That's not exactly true, now that single-use has been phased out… These things are easily worth several tens of thousands of pyen each… which is apparently quite expensive, but what do I know?" Calem said with a bit of a laugh. "Any facility that trades or distributes them has strict regulations on them. You can't sell them in most places. You need special permissions to give them out. In a city like Lumiose, walking around with so many of them is a massive risk. Any Trainer-issue bag has a separate high-security compartment just for them." Calem explained.

Well, looks like we got ourselves an egghead!" Dexio said with a laugh. "I'm the direct assistant of Professor Sycamore! I have privileges other people don't, so you and your tacky sunglasses can step off!" Dexio responded, causing Calem to step back in surprise and slight hurt, while Serena glared at Dexio.

"Now that I think about it...international law does mandate that an assistant, Trainer, or civilian never carries more TMs than explicitly necessary…Professor Oak told me that before." Ash said, now quite on edge. Sina stopped smiling.

"What are you trying to say?" Dexio said in a somewhat threatening tone, now walking closer to the group. Calem visibly started to become uncomfortable as Dexio advanced, but Serena stepped forward.

"They're saying you're a liar, and there's something _else _going on here." Serena said.

"You'd know, wouldn't you, Ms. Medical Marvel?" Dexio said with a laugh, as Serena gasped and stepped back in disbelieving horror.

"But...how did you...I thought everyone forg-"

"We aren't everyone, hon." Dexio interrupted smugly.

"Do we really have to do this, Dexio?" Sina said in an imploring tone, but Dexio waved her off. Espurr leapt at Dexio, but the blonde young man quickly gave a sharp, piercing whistle, and Espurr collapsed on the ground, clutching his head and making noises of agony.

"Espurr?!" Ash cried out in terrified astonishment, as the others looked on with similar feelings.

"Come on, like we practiced." Dexio said to Espurr, as the small kitten ever-so-hesitantly got up, hissed at Dexio one last time, then turned towards Ash's group and opened his eyes as wide as they would go, filling them with a deep, lurid, lavender glow as he did so. With everyone's eyes already on the small kitten, they were immediately transfixed.

"Why, Dexio?" came Sina's soft, somber tone, as reality became hazy and incomprehensible, more like a dream than reality.

"You know why." Dexio answered sharply and impatiently, just before the group found themselves standing in a quite spacious looking laboratory, filled with all sorts of gadgetry and machinery. Espurr stood with blank, lifeless stillness by Dexio's side, and they were all in front of a rather handsome looking 30-something year old man with wavy black hair, a white labcoat, and some stubble on his face. He was smiling kindly as Dexio snapped his fingers, causing Espurr to rigidly walk over to Professor Sycamore and allow him to idly pet his head while his eyes steadily stopped glowing, and reality came back into focus for the entire group.

* * *

"So, everyone!" Dexio said happily, as if he had been talking all along.

"T-that's the tour of the whole building!" Sina added in with slight hesitation and a thin smile.

"Now, enjoy your chat with the esteemed Professor Sycamore!" Dexio finished, as they both walked out of the room and locked the door behind them as if it were the most casual thing in the world. Espurr stared after them, only able to make his eyes briefly glow and his body fill with calming power as he did so. Otherwise, he'd have half a mind to gnaw the Professor's fingers off.

"Wow, Professor, we've been told so much about this place!" Ash said joyously, as if nothing unusual had happened at all. Espurr listened to him piteously, no longer wanting to look his Trainer in the eye… And in turn, he felt so awful he didn't want to be looked in the eye either… But perhaps that could actually be helpful. Espurr's eyes glowed briefly again as the Professor looked up to respond. More power flooded into Espurr's body, and he could feel his mind sharpening, could feel himself becoming more perceptive. Perhaps this was a battle he could win after all.

"Ah yes, Ash! Professor Oak has told me so much about you! Was it difficult getting here?" Sycamore said in a calming voice that seemed to worm into the group's heads and put them at ease. He took his hand off of Espurr's head, but Espurr didn't dare move.

"No, we made it just fine! It was worth it to finally meet you!" Ash responded cordially.

"My, it's marvelous to see that you brought so many friends along with you! Seems like we'll get along great already, doesn't it?" Sycamore said with a gentle smile, as he looked down at Espurr, who knew he had to act happy like his life depended on it.

"It sure does, sir!" Gary said agreeably. "I like the setup you've got here. My grandfather could learn a thing or two about being this orderly!" he continued, with a laugh. Sycamore laughed too, and Espurr's eyes simultaneously flashed again.

"It's really an honor to be talking with you, sir!" Calem said.

"Oh thank you, Calem, but the honor is all mine! I've been in close allegiance with the Xaviers for quite some time. Pokémon really do make the world go around, don't they?" Professor Sycamore asked. Once again, Espurr's eyes flashed.

"They sure do!" Calem amicably agreed.

"And you, Serena… Still not really sure what to do with the rest of your journey?" Sycamore asked with what sounded like genuine concern, looking at her with a slightly worried expression. Espurr's eyes flashed again… Almost there…

"Oh, I guess not, Professor… But it's been a fun journey so far, so I'm sure I'll find out something I want to do eventually." Serena said.

"Well, there's a whole big world out there just waiting for you. Don't rush, take your time." Sycamore said amicably, before looking down at Espurr, who had already used Calm Mind one last time. "And Ash, this really is a wonderful Espurr you're raising… So soft and well behaved…" Professor Sycamore said with a smile, as he bended down to pet Espurr again. The room went deathly silent for what felt like several very long seconds. For that brief moment, two very different pairs of eyes met to share a nearly identical sentiment of wild, gripping, bewildered terror mixed with pulsing waves of regret. Espurr's ears now lifted fully, the organs beneath them glowing so brilliantly it hurt to look at them. A sudden pulse of horrendous, inexplicable heat said it all. In the next moment, there came a disgusting series of cracking, crunching and splattering noises. Professor Sycamore's eyes went dead and blank, and his head lolled to the side. As that happened, his entire arm exploded from the fingertips on up. From bone, to flesh, to skin, to fabric, like a candle melting away at incredibly high speed. The remains didn't splatter across the room, they seemed to burn away into nothingness before they even could. The stump of Sycamore's arm didn't even bleed, it seemed to be burnt shut.

The four teens in the room gave mortified screams along with Professor Sycamore as Espurr used it's immense accumulated power to fling the Professor against the ceiling and floor multiple times, then crack his neck with a sickening pop.

"ESPURR?! ESPURR, NO, I- PROFESSOR! PROFESSOR! ESPURR! WHAT DID YOU DO, ESP-" Ash's hysterical voice burst out while everyone else backed against the nearest wall in a senseless panic. Espurr's eyes glowed a deep lilac, and the group grew quiet and complacent as tears welled up in Espurr's eyes, and he telekinetically grasped a pen and notepad from Ash's pocket. Quickly, frantically, he drew a crude tombstone, with simple flowers placed in front of it for good measure, and had the notepad float past the eyes of all four teens. He then crossed out the tombstone and pointed repeatedly at Sycamore, whose burnt, mutilated shoulder already had a fresh stub of new skin and bone growing. He then frantically turned to a new page and drew five stick figures, one a small, frowning, bipedal cat, the rest simple, smiling likenesses of the group. Espurr's stick figure was shown looking at thought bubbles issuing from the others, then drawn sharing a thought bubble with a stick figure likeness of Sycamore.

The group could only stare numbly at Espurr as Sycamore's neck steadily started to make cracking, popping sounds and untwist of its own volition, and Espurr quickly broke it again. Espurr started to truly cry as he frantically attempted to open the locked door, which seemed to be unyielding to all of his telekinetic efforts despite how easily he had just disintegrated a man's arm.

The group hardly had time to react meaningfully beyond a mess of shouting and hardly intelligible questions. Calem was simply clinging to Serena in desperation, eyes full of tears. Even Ash's Vivillon could only stare at Sycamore's corpse with bile fascination as the arm stump slowly regenerated, veins dancing beneath the skin like disgusting worms as it did so… But in that very moment, the door was flung open. Sina was on the other side, holding a small, silver key.

"Y-you have all got to get out of here." she said breathlessly. The group complied without question, scrambling to exit the room as fast as they could possibly manage. Sina quickly shut the door behind her. A Wooper, presumably Sina's, had frozen Dexio to the wall, leaving only his head exposed. Without being told, it almost immediately worked on freezing Sycamore's door shut as well, then ran off to follow Sina. Meanwhile, Sina hurriedly lead the group to the first floor and through an "employees only" door into the building's basement. It was less furnished and more dimly lit than the rest of the building. There were a few slightly rusty metal doors to other rooms, it smelled more than a bit musty, and it gave off an overall unsettling air, but it was still relatively clean, and quite important and functional looking. The group was so shaken they could hardly even think about the odd lack of anyone else in the building.

"What in the motherfucking world is going on?!" Gary asked, once they were all inside and finished running down the stairs. "The damn Professor is immortal and the damn cat is a spy?!" Gary cried.

"It's okay! It's okay! I'll call the police!" Sina cried.

"Haha, yeah, the police. So useful! So incorruptibly moral! Gee whiz! THE PROFESSOR IS UP THERE RIGHT NOW UNTWISTING HIS NECK LIKE SOMETHING OUT OF THE FUCKING EXORCIST!" Gary screamed.

"Please, just listen to me. We lied to you. I lied to you. I'm sorry. But… I can't… I can't stand by and let this happen." Sina said.

"WHAT EXACTLY /IS/ HAPPENING?!" Gary yelled.

"Dexio and I told Ash that there were no more starters. That was a lie. Of course we have more. We only said that so we could give him Espurr and have him spy on you… Do you really think we should've be so unprepared for one of Oak's favorite assistants?" Sina admitted. "It was really only coincidence that you found Serena, too… The Professor has been looking for a way to lure her out…"

"What the hell does he /want/ with us?!" Serena cried. Calem was still close by her side, no longer leaning into her, although they simply held her hand in anxious silence.

"The, uh, the Professor's immortality isn't real! I-it heals him, but it eats away at his, y'know, long-term health too! He's been, uh, studying it for years, and this is… is as far as he's gotten! He wants the /real/ immortality! Thinks he could change everything with it!" Sina explained in a frantic hurry.

"And no one cares or thinks anything is wrong?!" Ash asked incredulously.

"He's very careful about these things… Dexio is what ruined it all! If he'd only told you Professor Oak told Sycamore about the others, and not tried to bullshit his way through the whole TM fiasco! I mean, of course you'd question that! Of course you'd know better!" Sina cried.

"So why the hell are you helping us now?!" Serena asked.

"I-I didn't want this to happen! I just hoped you'd, you'd cooperate! I hoped everything w-would turn out okay! I didn't want him to hurt you! I didn't! I didn't! I was just following orders!" Sina cried, her voice growing increasingly panicked and unsteady, which made Serena feel more than just a pang of guilt.

"What the hell are we supposed to do about this?!" Ash asked almost rhetorically, clearly just about out of patience.

Sina took a long, deep breath. "You have to go. Professor Sycamore is, well, Professor Sycamore. He holds a lot of power and respect here. The police would only slow him down anyway… He'd worm his way out of it, unfortunately." Sina explained.

"So what are you gonna do, just let him keep doing… whatever the fuck it is he's trying to do?" Serena asked.

"I'm going to escape. I'm going to stop listening to him, and escape. And then maybe we can find out how to bring his actions to light. But he won't be able to tell people the whole truth about what happened here before things get too sticky even for him, so at least that's one advantage. For now, you'll probably remain his personal targets. I'm so sorry..."

"So for now, can we just get the hell out of here? This is really giving me the creeps…" Gary muttered. "Why the hell did you even lead us into this creepy ass basement…"

"I felt it'd be better and safer, mostly. There's a stairway that leads directly outside, and there's something I wanted to show you…" Sina said, as she went over to a desk and opened a small metallic case, revealing three Poké Balls, each marked with fire, water, and grass symbols. "Kanto starters. Since two of you are from Kanto, and I figured you need all the protection you can get… Plus, we never gave Ash a proper choice at a starter, so y'know…" Sina said with a cheap, flimsy sort of laugh.

"...With all due respect, as generous as you're being about all of this...can we really trust you?" Ash asked with a frown, eyeing the Poké Balls warily. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there are tiny microphones in these Poké Balls or something…" Sina seemed to be greatly upset by this, and lowered her head in shame and disappointment.

"I understand. I know you've been through a lot… So I will say with utmost confidence that this is not a trick, but I do understand that you might not feel comfortable accepting one… So, whoever does want to pick, I'll let you do that, then give the remainders to the Pokémon Center." Sina said sadly. While Gary was also looking rather wary, and Calem was just sort of blankly staring at the Poké Balls, Serena seemed to be so moved by the girl's sadness that she came forward.

"Okay, I'll pick Squirtle… If anything, so it'll have a better home than here." Serena said, picking up the ball with the droplet marking.

"...Well, I guess I'll have Charmander then." Gary said, picking up the Poké Ball with the flame marking. "Are you sure you don't want it, Ash? Charmander were always among your favorites back at Gramps' lab…" Gary ventured to say, but Ash just shook his head.

"I'm fine. I have plenty of things to work through with the two I already have anyway. Espurr must be feeling terrible about all of this, and how I lost my patience with him… If I get another starter now, I feel like I'd be insulting him." Ash reasoned.

Meanwhile, Serena turned towards Sina again, noticing she still wore a rather conflicted expression. "...By the way, thank you, Sina. It'll be alright." Serena said sweetly, as she thoughtlessly patted the young woman's head, producing a look of confusion and embarrassment on Sina's face.

"D-don't do that! Don't just touch my hair like that! I-I'm the bad guy, y'know? I've been doing all this bad stuff! Y-you can't just touch me like that all the sudden!" Sina yelped, as she leapt away from Serena's touch.

"Sorry, you just remind me a little of Calem, being so tense and afraid like that…" Calem seemed to flinch at the mention of their name, but otherwise remained quiet. "But I think you have a good heart, Sina. I don't think you're as bad as you think you are." Serena said with a small, but genuine smile.

"...Uh...uhm...thanks?" Sina muttered uncertainly, as she fidgeted with her hands and looked around the room for a moment. "But you all need to go! All of you! The stairs are over there!" Sina exclaimed, pointing to a door on the other side of the room

"Why don't you come with us, Sina?" Serena asked, as the group moved towards the stairwell.

"What?!" both Ash and Sina exclaimed. Even Sina's Wooper, who had managed to stay beside her in relative silence, looked quite surprised.

"Won't it be safer if we're all together?" Serena asked in complete seriousness. "And less lonely?"

"I'm not…" Sina started. "I'm not like you… I can't…"

"Of course you can!" Serena responded. "None of us planned to be in this situation in the first place! What do you have to lose?"

"...Just for a little while… Until I have better plans..." Sina muttered.

"Serena, are you sure about this?" Ash asked.

"I've lived my whole life being afraid that people would only assume the worst of me if they knew the truth. It's been a very fortunate life, in spite of that, but I won't forget it…" Serena said, causing Ash's expression to soften.

"...I see what you're saying." Ash said more gently, his tone a mixture of both understanding and apology. "Okay, let's just go then…" he said. The newly expanded group climbed the stairwell and exited the building through the back door, walking away as quickly as possible.

"...We gotta tell my grandpa about this, I think that's what comes first…" Gary said.

"I can't believe the Professor's whole arm just… oh my god…" Calem suddenly said aloud, more to himself than anyone in particular.

"I know, Calem…" Serena said sympathetically, while Espurr lowered his head and made a sad little mewl. "But Gary's right. The Professor should be able to help, in some way…"

The group originally planned to go to the nearest Pokémon Center, but that seemed like quite an awkward and perhaps even dangerous thing to do given the nature of the conversation they were planning to have. It wasn't until the group remembered they packed Holo Casters that things got easier.

"...So we went all the way to a Pokémon Center the first time when we could've just used these? Fuck, I forgot I even had one of these things…" Ash said, as he looked at the one Gary had retrieved from his bag. "I blame Gary." he added on as a careless, teasing afterthought.

"It was a force of habit, and we were in the area anyway! I never had anything like this on my Kanto journey!" Gary cried. "Plus, who wants to talk to someone who's all blue and transparent looking? This is practically a step down from something like Unova's Xtransceiver!" Gary added on, not particularly caring how petty his reasoning sounded. "And he doesn't even have his own Holo Caster, so it'll probably just be audio only! Fuck, cell phones can do better!"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't look down on Kalosian technology…" Sina added in.

"Just call your damn grandpa!" Serena shouted impatiently, causing Gary to momentarily look back at her with a half-lidded, unimpressed expression before making the call with a few mumbles beneath his breath.

"Gramps?!" Gary said, surprised to see Professor Oak's hologram floating in the air after only a few rings. "When the heck did you get one of these?!"

"Gary!" Serena cried.

"Right, right, not important! Gramps, seriously now, something's wrong with Sycamore!" Gary cried.

"Oh dear…" Oak said with a frown and a somewhat knowing tone. "What's the problem?"

"He's been using Ash's Espurr to spy on us." Gary said.

"...Espurr?" Oak said with noticeable shock. "Why in the world… I told him to prepare his finest starters! This is practically family I'm sending to his region, and that's what he does?! And to think I never even thought to ask how Ash's starter was doing when you first called!" Oak cried. "If I'd know this would happen, I would've given Ash a starter myself like I first planned… I knew it. I knew I shouldn't have trusted that man…" Oak said in a rather worrying tone. Everyone was now listening even closer.

"...What the heck is that supposed to mean? How much do you know about this, Professor?!" Ash demanded to know.

"Sycamore has always been among one of the most questionable in the world of Pokémon research, despite having some noteworthy achievements under his belt as well. His methods are unorthodox, he has myriads of unfounded theories, and sometimes he charms his way through things without genuine talent or effort… Basically, rumor is he may be something of a hack." Oak explained. "That Espurr… Where is it?"

"I still have him, Professor." Ash said.

"Were there any warning signs? Any odd behavior? How does he act now?"

"It's my fault, Professor. He was stalling for time before we even got into the city, and not listening to me. I thought he was just being rebellious… I should've known better than to read him so poorly." Ash told Oak.

"Ash, I'd like for you to keep that Espurr, but you should send him to me for a while… If he's been conditioned to unwillingly share thoughts with Sycamore, we'll need to have that undone…"

"Espurr turned on him and attacked him when we were led to his lab, that's how we're here now. From the look of Sycamore's eyes and body language at the time, I'd say Espurr's attack pretty much literally scrambled his brain, which would erase any sort of deep-seeded shared connection." Ash explained.

"Ash, while that is technically possible, that would mean Sycamore is dead now…" Oak responded with a rather disgusted and disbelieving expression.

"That's just what I was getting to. He isn't dead at all. I...I don't know how, but he's immortal too..." Ash said.

"...What." Oak said flatly, not even seeming to be sure what amount of surprise would be appropriate. "Ash, if this is some kind of joke or exaggeration…" Oak's eyes were wider and his face tighter now, and a restless tone was creeping into the edges of his voice.

"It's not a joke, Gramps!" Gary cried.

"Professor Sycamore has based many theories and experiments on the subject of immortality… I used to help him a bit. Used to. But I never would've guessed he actually made such practical headway… Nor that he'd be desperate enough to test his findings on himself…" Professor Oak seemed to be moving to a different room as he spoke, and the group could distinctly hear a door closing and locking.

"Sir, if I may say something…" Sina started, as she moved closer to the Holo Caster. "My name is Sina, I was Professor Sycamore's high ranking assistant for quite a long time, and I know it isn't perfected. It still comes at a great cost to his health... I also know he's experimented with it on many Pokémon... I believe that's why he's taken such an interest in Ash and Serena."

Professor Oak sighed deeply. "I should've been more careful. I always knew there would be risks the day you finally went on a journey, but not like this…" Oak said. "I suppose I'll tell you now, Ash. You too, Serena. No sense in playing dumb. Your fathers, my son, and my daughter in law…" Gary gasped, eyes glued to Oak's face as he spoke. "They all went on an expedition in Kalos, along with many other like-minded people, on an expedition to find Xerneas. They wanted to find the secrets of eternal life, and potentially advance our understanding of biology by decades, if not centuries… I went too. I let it happen. I let it all happen." Professor Oak took a deep, tired breath, then continued.

"We were nearly about to give up when we finally found Xerneas. It… It was Ash's father that found it first. Deep, deep in a remote forest, sitting in a clearing... He was the best Trainer out of any of us… He had such a gift for Pokémon, really, but when it came to people, he was very particular. He was like a leader for us, despite being so young… He always knew what to try next, always told us not to give up... It's…sort of a shame what...what happened…" Professor Oak swallowed hard. "Not that I'm not even really sure what happened after that. Mr. Ketchum was always eccentric, but he was the most important person for tracking that thing down… We were ignorant back then. We thought it was a Psychic type, but apparently, not only was he able to track it down, he already knew differently. We had no idea why Mr. Ketchum was going after it with Poison types, we thought he was crazy. It wasn't even active yet, it was still in it's tree form... We weren't even supposed to attack the damn thing, we were only supposed to find a way to reason with it."

Ash and Gary cocked their eyebrows at that. Professor Oak pretty much never got angry at Pokémon. Never. He never insulted them, never belittled them… So to hear him refer to one, let alone a legend, as a "damn thing" was incredibly off putting. "Mr. Ketchum asked it to accept his power. Not only asked, he demanded it. He kept ordering his Pokémon to attack it, all Poison and Steel type attacks… We tried telling him to stop, but he told us we didn't know a damn thing… I suppose he was right, in a way. When it came out of tree form, it was like nothing I'd ever seen… A massive deer, horns glowing in every color, entire body bursting with radiance. All the plants in the area exploded with health and vibrancy in an instant, it was stunning… The whole clearing just exploded with plant life… Quite literally, too. Trees grew right through people… Vines strangled people… It still feels like maybe it was only a dream…" Professor Oak shuddered ever so slightly, then continued.

"It spoke to us, but it never moved its mouth. It felt like it was right in your head, impossible not to hear it, like the voice was just a part of you… And I suppose that might be correct, in a way. It congratulated us, but you could tell how bitter and sarcastic it was. It informed us that it was the god of life. It said that it could manipulate every aspect of our lives, and not just make us immortal... then the damn thing said it may as well give us what we "deserved", for coming all that way…" Professor Oak seemed to nearly be in tears, but his voice stayed relatively calm nonetheless.

"And oh, did it ever... Have you ever seen someone get flayed alive by barbed tentacles from their own arms? I have. What about a living statue that can still scream? I have. What about bursting into inextinguishable flame, in constant pain but unable to die? I have. And that wasn't even all of it. Some of us were able to escape, but many met their ends that way. We all acted as if it were a failure. Might as well have. All we learned is that there is a Pokémon out there that does not respect us, does not want to co-operate, does not show mercy. All it wanted out of us was suffering. That's it. The damn thing killed my son, and left my grandson without parents… I thought they got away fine… But I was wrong. Just a small percentage of their cells were altered, and from there it slowly worsened and weakened them… My son's wife died during childbirth, and my son only lasted several years longer... It's honestly a miracle Gary is here, let alone healthy…"

Everyone simply stared in varying levels of shock and horror, not really sure what to say at all, until Ash spoke up.

"So… where are our fathers now?" Ash asked hesitantly.

"I have no idea. I may not even really want to know, either. Your father was a talented man, Ash. But he was by no means a 'good' man. Even when being interrogated after the expedition, he would hardly tell us anything. He would just mutter and keep to himself, and he never acted as kind as he used to. He always seemed so confident and boisterous before Xerneas, but his personality just fell apart afterwards. He was probably never what he seemed at all, honestly. He knew too much, and I can only wish I knew how he came upon that knowledge… Although I don't think the answer would please me."

"And my father?" Serena asked, rather apprehensively.

"He was a nice man. Skilled, but much more mild. We all thought he came out of it the best. Apparently, we were wrong. When he got home, he started reporting some worrying changes in his internal structure, and he became more restless and withdrawn. Not long after that, none of us knew where he had gone."

"O-oh…" Serena said, as if she sort of wished she didn't ask. Without even really thinking, she took Calem's hand and squeezed it for a moment.

"I don't want any of you looking into this too hard yourselves… I suppose you are no longer children, but please don't go about this recklessly. Don't make this all your problem. _Please._ You still have so many things to look forward to, and so many things to enjoy. " Oak said.

"You got it, Professor…" Ash said softly.

"Okay, Gramps…" Gary said at almost the same time, as the call ended with a small smile from Professor Oak.

"...What the hell do we do now?" Ask asked uncertainly.

"We know there's something wrong with Professor Sycamore, but we don't really have the strength or knowledge to do much of anything about it… For now, I think we do what Gramps said, and just continue this journey. There's a good chance we'll learn more as we go along." Gary said, although somewhat uncomfortably.

"...Alright…" Ash reluctantly agreed, as the others nodded, and they began to travel along one of the main streets of Lumiose.

"Seems reasonable…" Sina agreed.

"My guess was right…" Calem muttered. "It really was Xerneas…" they continued. "But why like that? I thought this was supposed to be happy! I thought I had more friends now, and freedom, and respect, and everything was going to be better, and more fun!" Calem cried, their voice quickly becoming pitchy and unstable.

"It will be, Calem! It will be!" Serena said, hugging Calem close as the teen fought back tears. "You just have to give it some time…" Serena tried to explain. A thick, comforting aroma wafted through the air as Dahlia perched in Calem's hair and made gentle sounds.

"Well, we still have all of Lumiose to explore…" Ash said.

"And hell Calem, you're rich. Fuck this stress, we're gonna go to a nice restaurant!" Gary declared.

"Gary!" Serena protested, only to be somewhat surprised when Calem actually smiled and agreed.

Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

**Yeah, I know Ash being jaded and doubtful about something might seem pretty weird for him, but his starter Pokémon did just reveal it was being forced to betray him, so I figure that explains a lot.**

And I mean come on, is it really that wise to spend an entire journey being super trusting at all times? That's half the reason why TR kept fucking him over.


End file.
